Gifts and Friends: Book 1 Beginnings
by TJchaos
Summary: A continuation of my story 'Gifts'. Jiraiya takes a bit more interest in Naruto's life and sets in motion some significant changes.  Rated M for likely harsh language and violence in future chapters. No real pairings for Book 1.  Will get into Fuinjutsu.
1. Chapter 1

**Gifts and Friends: Book One, Beginnings**

A/N: * Insert standard disclaimer regarding ownership of Naruto * Not mine etc, etc. This is written as a work of fanfiction, expect various differences from canon and no intention for making any money directly from this. Indirectly it would be nice if this stuff helps my writing skills enough to publish my own original fiction, hahaha.

I'm going to treat this story as something of a continuation or sequel to 'Gifts'. The last two sections for the original short story will not have happened for this story, basically turning this story completely into an AU. I've been working on this for some time now and it's going rather slowly so don't expect quick updates. I do have around 40,000 words written of 'Book 1' so far. I'm aiming for chapters of about 5k words (or a bit more) and with A LOT of luck updating once a month. I'm planning on covering roughly from the beginning of Naruto's last year of the academy up to the time skip with 'Book 1' here. My basic goal here is to extend the concept that I explored in the original 'Gifts' story of Jiraiya taking a bit more of an active role in Naruto's life. I'm also going to have Naruto learning fuuinjutsu with this story. May possibly explore various clone jutsu, especially the Kage Bunshin.

**Chapter 1:**

The toad popped into existence near the bottom of the small pond. The smoke of it's forward summoning quickly dissolved in the water and what little that made it to the surface was indistinguishable from the traces of evening fog hugging the top of the water in places. The frog quickly propelled itself to the surface and looked around for a few moments. Seeing the coast was clear it hopped up onto a nearby walkway and opened it's mouth wide. A hand appeared and slowly stretched out of the small amphibian. A short time later a fully grown man emerged from the impossibly stretched out toad. He looked like a completely nondescript Leaf chuunin. The man nodded silently to the small creature before it hopped back into the water and disappeared with a small ripple. He quickly faded into the shadows, easing quietly away from the now still waters.

In moments he was drifting silently through the streets of the village in a seemingly random fashion. It wasn't long before he was satisfied that nobody was following him and he headed off to one building in particular. He smiled as he turned a corner and looked at a rather nondescript apartment building. It was actually one of the better looking buildings, only five stories tall and very box like in appearance despite the twenty balconies facing the street he was on. Not even old Sarutobi knew that he was the real owner of this particular building. His 'official' residence was elsewhere in the village but he had arranged to have the eight apartments on the fifth floor to never be rented out. This gave him a nice way of staying in his home village without anyone knowing he was there. He smoothly glided up the stairs and entered the fifth floors hallway. He took note of the tells and other hidden alarms hidden throughout the hall as he headed to one door. Satisfied that it was reasonably secure he entered one of the more center apartments. He gave a quick glance around and smiled at the sight of a small pile of papers that he quickly picked up as he wandered through the apartment.

With a very soft concentration of chakra, molded in a very specific pattern he brushed his hand across one wall. The wood shimmered for a moment before framed pictures began to appear all along the wall. He gave them all a quick glance, from the oldest one showing him as a Genin with his team and Sarutobi sensei over across the wall to a couple of Naruto. There were several of him with Minato and one of Minato and Kushina close to the two of Naruto. He looked over the collection sadly for a short time lost in his memories.

A few minutes later he was relaxing on the couch, papers in hand, pleased to have found all of the timers that turned on various lights and other items that made the apartments of the fifth floor seem occupied for months on end were all working fine. His hands blurred for a brief instant and the stack of small papers was reordered so that the one on the bottom was now the top of the stack. He had completely reversed the stack with that blur of motion and sorted out a couple of pictures that were included with the rest of the collection.

Less than a half hour later he had unhappily finished reading through all of the reports. To anyone else alive today each scrap of paper would look much like a mess of meaningless scribbles and smudges. To someone who had signed the frog scroll and studied the sage arts at Myobokuzan each piece of paper was a tidbit of information. Granted those tidbits were a bit haphazard at best with long periods of time between each report. Jiraiya let out a small sigh of frustration, things here were not going the way he had hoped. He hadn't actually been in the village for over two years and even that last time he wasn't able to stop by here and check on things. One thing was certain, old man Sarutobi was not doing what he was supposed to be doing. Jiraiya was reasonably certain that it was likely the councils fault but that didn't make him any less angry.

"Screw this I need a drink." He muttered softly as he left the apartment in disgust.

In short order he was out and wandering the streets again under his 'chuunin' henge. It didn't take long before he found himself entering a nearby bar. He looked around and smiled slightly after spotting one rather distinctive patron. He glided to the bar and took the stool next to the young woman. There was no other people sitting near her so he felt reasonably safe. She gave him a quick glance, obviously irritated but promptly ignored him.

"Mitarashi." He stated quietly causing her to pull back and glare at him.

"Do I know you?" She snarled, softly but still a snarl.

"Yeah you do. I'm looking for a favor." He replied very quietly as he looked around to the other patrons of the bar.

The nondescript man bit his thumb and his hands blurred while he focused a tiny bit of chakra.

"Kuchiyose no jutsu." He whispered as he placed his hand on the bar.

Anko quivered as she fought the urge to leap from her seat. Although she kept her seat she did grasp a few kunai in her right hand while her left palmed an explosive tag that was hidden in her sleeve. Her uneasiness vanished as she spotted what looked to her to be a small frog that appeared on the counter for a brief moment before the man canceled the summons and it disappeared as fast as it had appeared.

"Lord Ji-" Anko started to say as her eyes widened.

"Shh!" Jiraiya hissed. "Nobody knows I'm here in the village and it's going to stay that way." He continued in a whisper.

"You have got to fucking be kidding me. You just summoned a damn frog on top of the bar and you want to keep a low profile? You really are an idiot." She muttered in a barely audible voice.

"That one was a toad, not a frog and nobody in here other than you has the slightest clue that it was here."

"Frog, toad, whatever. What do you want?"

"I dropped the ball on an old obligation and I'm hoping to correct that. The old man was supposed to be taking care of something that was my responsibility and I don't think he's been doing a proper job of it."

"Feh, what does any of that have to do with me?" She scowled at him.

"Nothing really, other than the fact that you owe me one and I know you can keep your mouth shut when it comes to important things."

Anko's hand drifted towards her shoulder for a moment. The damn pervert was right. He was one of the few people who had done a lot of work to help contain the foul seal her own former sensei had branded her with.

"If you try to get my clothes off I swear I'm going to cut your fucking balls off." Anko muttered.

"As attractive as you are, this is serious." Jiraiya glared at Anko in such a way that even through his henge she could tell something had really angered the old toad hermit. She paused for a moment

"Alright already tell me what you want."

"You know of Uzumaki right?"

"The fox brat? Yeah sure, who doesn't." Anko shivered ever so slightly at the venom she glimpsed at in Jiraiya's eyes when she said 'fox brat'.

"I'd like you keep an eye on him, especially this coming October tenth."

"You have got to be kidding me. I'm no fucking baby sitter." Anko growled.

"Give me a break already. I know that. I'm not asking you to take care of him or anything substantial. You don't even have to let him know you're there. In fact I would prefer that, people might notice if he suddenly found any sort of unofficial protector. Just check on him a bit from time to time. Except for October tenth. I'd like you to shadow him that day and make sure nothing happens to him. I'll even set up a bogus C-rank mission at the office requesting you on that day. I'll come up with some meaningless drivel and toss in a nice bonus as well. You can spend the whole day and evening just following him around while eating dango."

Anko looked at him with an intense expression of irritation.

"Did you fall off of one of your silly toads and hit your head?" She asked.

"No I did not." Jiraiya stated.

Anko's eyes widened slightly. The undercurrent of anger emanating from the mans voice with that one simple sentence was hard to believe. Her eyes darted around the bar scanning the other patrons. Not one of them had reacted and to tell the truth she hadn't felt the slightest psychic whisper of the massive amount of killing intent she knew was lurking just below those few words. She was both surprised and impressed that the old man could not only be that angry but manage to suppress it on a psychic level when it was so obvious to anyone skilled in reading peoples emotions through body language and voice patterns. Of course that supposed that they had to be close enough to hear the mans words. She's lay odds that if there had been any Hyuuga in the bar they would have either vanished or intruded on the conversation by now. What ever was going on with the fox brat she certainly wasn't going to do anything that added to Jiraiya's anger, in fact she concluded that she'd better stop thinking about the kid as the fox brat.

"O.K. I'll do it." She muttered softly as she turned back to her drink.

"Thanks Anko, I really appreciate this. I'll talk to you later." Jiraiya said quietly as he got up, tossed a hefty amount of cash on the bar and left.

-ooo-

Naruto was bored. As much as he screwed around and didn't pay attention in class, days at the academy were certainly better than the few short breaks they got throughout the year. He still had a week to go before classes started up again and he didn't think he be able to handle that one last week without going completely insane. He gave a pile of scrolls currently residing under his non-working T.V. a scowl. His frown deepened at the thought of trying to wring anything useful out of those scrolls, he had induced many headaches over the past few years trying to figure out some of them. With a sigh he pulled his white t-shirt on and grinned as he headed out of his bedroom area and was quickly out the front door and down all the flights of stairs to the street. With a little luck he'd be able to find and pester Iruka sensei. With a lot of luck he would be able to finagle a bowl or two of ramen out of his one tolerable instructor. Rounding a corner at a full run he collided with a large man and fell backwards onto his rear end. Looking up Naruto felt that the man was vaguely familiar but he didn't really remember him. Taking in the sight of the mans long white mustache and weird glasses that didn't show his eyes made Naruto peer intently at the really large man. The faint glimmer of a dim memory tugged at him as he looked the man over and decided he looked like some sort of high class waiter.

"Ah, it's Mr. Great Ninja himself. How are you doing kiddo? Still in the academy?"

"You!" Naruto nearly yelled as he pointed at the man, the vague memory sharpening.

"Me?"

"Uh, yeah, wait, I don't know your name but you're the guy who bought me my first real ramen at Ichiraku's!" Naruto continued, his hand jabbing back and forth as he continued to point at the man.

"That's right. In fact I seem to remember that I promised you some more ramen if you did really well at the academy." Jiraiya stated while crossing his arms and smiling down at Naruto.

His smile faded quickly as he watched Naruto's face fall and for a moment the young boy looked devastated.

"Well..." Naruto started before the man suddenly cut him off.

"Tell you what, I can tell you're not doing as well as you would like. How about I treat you anyway and you can tell me all about it." Jiraiya flashed a wide smile.

"Really!" Naruto's face lit up with a huge smile.

"Yeah, really. Come on kid." The disguised Jiraiya said with a chuckle.

Ten minutes later the two arrived at the Ichiraku Ramen stand. Teuchi greeted Naruto with a smile but eyed Jiraiya with a tinge of suspicion for a moment.

"Hey old man! One bowl of Miso please!" Naruto yelled out as he jumped onto a stool.

"Sure thing Naruto. What about you?" Teuchi asked Jiraiya as he took note of the odd glasses and sharply pressed vest.

"Hmm, you know I think I'll go with a bowl of beef ramen please." Jiraiya said through his henge.

Naruto seemed slightly nervous and apprehensive as they waited for their orders. Jiraiya looked down out of the corner of his eye and chuckled slightly knowing that the boy was dreading talking about his performance at the academy.

"I take it you'd rather not talk about the academy?" The older man finally asked.

"Yeah, it's not as good as I would like." Naruto stated with a rare burst of honesty.

Naruto fidgeted a moment and Jiraiya suddenly felt an extremely well suppressed chakra signature. He glanced around for a moment before his eyes locked onto an odd shadow along a nearby building.

"Don't beat yourself up about it kid. Hey! Teuchi-san, do you have a public restroom?" Jiraiya asked.

"Sure around the side." Teuchi's eyes narrowed at the fact that the stranger knew his name but didn't know about the restaurant's bathroom.

Jiraiya stood up and quickly rounded the corner. As soon as he was certain he was out of sight of Naruto and the ramen chef he seemed to blend into the shadows and vanished. An instant later he appeared next to the shadow he had taken note of earlier, briefly dropping his henge as he reached into the shadow and tapped the masked shinobi on the shoulder. As the ANBU startled, stunned that not only had someone gotten the drop on him but that someone was none other than Lord Jiraiya of the Sannin. Before he could react Jiraiya's henge was back in place.

"Lord Ji-" The ANBU started to say before he was cut off.

"Shh! Listen, nobody and I mean nobody should know I'm here. Do me a big favor and don't mention seeing me to anyone, not even to the Hokage. He thinks I'm over in Iron country near the Lightning border and I'd really prefer not to get another lecture about not being where he thinks I am. As a token of my gratitude you can have this." Jiraiya reached into his vest and pulled out a book that he promptly handed to the ANBU captain.

"Icha Icha Violence?" The masked shinobi asked.

"That's an advanced autographed copy. It should be in stores in about two, maybe three months though. I imagine that even if you don't care for my literature you could trade it to Kakashi and he will be deeply in your debt. I have to check a few things on the kids seal so don't freak out when we vanish after we finish eating. I promise he'll be fine and I should have him back here after about an hour or two."

"There isn't anything wrong with the seal is there?" Despite his ANBU training the man paled behind his mask.

"No, no problems at all. It's more of a checkup type of thing and I want to see a few things that I just haven't had a chance to ever look at. Sarutobi has assured me several times that there's nothing wrong with the Fourth's work. Minato was an unparalleled master of sealing, much better than even me but like I said, I simply haven't had a chance to really look it over. There are eight other Bijuu out there, even if all of them are probably sealed you never know when one might come knocking on the door. As far as I've been able to gather over the years Minato's seal is possibly the strongest one anyone has come up with yet. It's certainly something I want to know more about for a lot of reasons."

"Ah, you have my word Jiraiya-sama. Nobody will know you were here from me. This book was actually a gift from a friend of a friend who was on a caravan that arrived from Kumo yesterday. Thank you my lord." The ANBU bowed deeply, the book disappeared into his vest and he promptly vanished.

Jiraiya smiled as he sensed where the ANBU had reappeared. It was a bit further away but still reasonably close to Naruto if any of his superiors decided to check up on him yet far enough away that when Jiraiya decided to leave it wasn't likely that he could be followed. At least not without knowing he was being followed.

Jiraiya returned to his seat and other than ordering a second bowl each the rest of their meal passed in relative silence. Naruto was still somewhat subdued over thinking about his performance at the academy, despite not really talking about it and Jiraiya was content to simply sit there and enjoy the ramen.

"Ah, Teuchi-san that was excellent as always. It has been far too long since I have eaten here but you still make the best ramen I've eaten in any of the elemental countries." Jiraiya stated as he stood up, dug out his wallet, paid for the ramen while leaving a generous tip.

"So you've been here before?" Teuchi asked.

"Sadly not for several years. My work doesn't bring me back to Konoha anywhere near as often as I would like. Hey kid come along and we'll see if I can help you for the academy in some way."

Naruto eyed the man for a moment. There were very few people he trusted but something about this man seemed o.k. Besides he was pretty confident that he could vanish in the crowds and lose the big man quickly if he had to.

"Sure." The young blond said with a shrug.

The two walked off as Jiraiya concentrated on the various chakra signatures in the area. As they rounded a corner the tall older man spoke.

"Want to see a cool technique?"

Naruto's head snapped up and his eyes got wide.

"You know some jutsu? Sure! Show me!"

"Watch carefully now, this is commonly used by Leaf Ninja."

Jiraiya's hands moved slowly through a short series of seals as he concentrated his chakra. After the final seal he reached down and put his hand on Naruto's shoulder as he released his chakra and the jutsu activated. There was a swirl of leaves that surrounded and flowed around the two for a moment before they vanished. A few seconds later they reappeared in front of Naruto's apartment door. Jiraiya almost stumbled for a moment but Naruto didn't notice as he was staring at his door with his mouth open in shock.

"That was a little farther than most anyone would normally go with that but that was a Shunshin. A lot of villages use slight variants of it and usually Leaf Ninja add leaves, that can help confuse some trackers if you're lucky."

"Wow! Can you teach that to me?"

Jiraiya laughed.

"I don't know. Have you learned how to do a Kawarimi yet at the academy?"

"Well they showed it to us last term but I haven't been able to get it to work yet."

Hmm, to be honest then I can't teach you the Shunshin until you get the hang of Kawarimi."

"Oh. That sucks." Naruto replied in an uncharacteristically subdued manner.

"I guess it will have to wait then. Lets see what you've been working on then why don't we?" The disguised Jiraiya said as he gestured to the door.

"Oh! Right!" Naruto answered with a flush as he fumbled with his key, opened the door and quickly led Jiraiya into his kitchen area.

"So what kind of instruction materials do you have here anyway?" Jiraiya asked as he followed Naruto into the small apartment.

"Most of the stuff I've got here is that pile of scrolls." Naruto stated, pointing to a small pile of scrolls.

Jiraiya walked over to the pile and quickly looked over all of them. He felt a white flash of fury as he finished looking through Naruto's collection of scrolls. Not one of the ones he had given to the young boy years ago through one of his frogs was there.

"Are you sure that these are all of your scrolls? You don't have any more or have lost any have you?"

"Well I did have a few others but one of my instructors at the academy traded me a jutsu scroll for them when I first started there. Here hold on I'll get it." Naruto dug through the collection and handed Jiraiya a scroll.

Jiraiya opened and quickly skimmed through the scroll before looking at the young blond in frustration. Muttering a soft curse under his breath he counted to ten and then again only backwards before he continued.

"Let me guess, you were never able to get that jutsu to work were you?"

"How'd you know?" Naruto asked, the surprise evident on his face.

"Kid you are far too trusting. The seal sequence in this scroll is messed up and it doesn't even come close to matching the description on how to mold chakra for this. At best you might be able to mildly electrocute yourself with what is described here. I hope you don't mind but I'm going to keep this particular scroll. Many of the instructors at the academy are really no different than all those villagers that give you a hard time. Many of them are probably screwing you over. Remember they are Ninja, they make their living deceiving people." Jiraiya said softly as he pocketed the scroll.

"What do you mean?"

"Listen to this very closely Naruto. Your instructors are Shinobi, they lie and trick people for a living. It's the very definition of Ninja. Most of them dislike you don't they?"

"Yeah, I guess." Naruto said as he looked down.

"Don't let it get to you. Most of the ones that don't like you are stupid, never forget that. Just keep in mind that you should be very careful trusting any of your instructors. Whoever it was that traded those scrolls definitely screwed you and that one especially you should never trust whoever it was."

"So you're saying I can't trust anyone?"

"Oh man kid." Jiraiya paused. "No I'm not saying that. What I'm trying to say is that you have to be careful. That guy at the ramen stand and his daughter, they seem very trustworthy. The Hokage is pretty trustworthy for you although I think he should be doing a better job with your academy issues. I'm sure that there are others."

"Hey! Hey! Wait a second! You have to check one more scroll for me!" Naruto said as he ran out of the room.

In a moment he was back practically shoving a rather worn looking scroll into Jiraiya's hands.

"What's so special about this one?"

"One of the instructors gave it to me and said it should help me out but I've always had trouble trying to understand it."

Jiraiya looked down at Naruto with a frown. He opened the scroll up, fully expecting it to be another attempt to sabotage Naruto's shinobi education or worse Naruto himself. A minute or so later he had skimmed through the entire scroll and a small smile appeared on the older mans face.

"Well kid it looks like you have at least one instructor at the academy that is trustworthy. Not only is this one of the better introductions to the theory of chakra manipulation it has some good practical stuff in it. Also see these notations on the edges?" Jiraiya pointed to some additional notes written on the scroll.

"Yeah, I guess. I never really noticed them before."

"Well to me it looks like this is actually a family scroll. Something that Shinobi parents have their children study when they enter the academy."

"But Iruka-sensei doesn't have any parents, he's an orphan like me." Naruto stated quietly.

"This scroll is probably even more precious than I thought then. It is very unusual for an instructor to lend or give such a scroll to a student, especially if they had lost their own parents. Most shinobi would hold onto it until they had children of their own or would give it to one of their siblings." Jiraiya said softly as he handed the scroll back to Naruto.

Naruto's eyes were slightly wide as they completely locked onto the scroll. His knuckles whitened slightly as his grip tightened. Without completely realizing it Jiraiya just raised Naruto's opinion of the scroll, which had induced a large number of headaches for the boy. The small roll of paper just became one of his most precious possessions.

"Tell you what kid, you really want to learn Shunshin right? If you learn the knowledge contained in that scroll and learn the Kawarimi then picking up Shunshin should be a piece of cake. I'll make a deal with you, in fact you could even consider it a Shinobi mission, can you promise that you will learn everything in the scroll that your Iruka-sensei gave you?"

"Yeah! I'll do whatever it takes to master this scroll now that I know how important it is." Naruto said with barely contained enthusiasm.

"Well keep that promise and I don't see any problem with giving you this." Jiraiya smiled as he reached into his vest, pulled out a small scroll and handed it to Naruto.

"What's this?"

"Open it up and check it out yourself."

Naruto peeled open the beginning of the scroll and a smile appeared as he read the title and description that detailed the Shunshin jutsu.

"Thank you!" Naruto exclaimed as he lunged forward and hugged Jiraiya.

"Hey, hey, enough of that. Just remember to learn that scroll your sensei gave you, it covers a lot of the basics. Those basics may seem boring and dull, especially to someone your age but more often than not a shinobi with a solid grounding in the basics can often beat out a shinobi with a flashy super jutsu if their basics aren't solid. If you really have trouble with that scroll your Iruka-sensei gave you then you should ask him about it after classes. I'm sure he'd be more than willing to help you out with it. I believe you've got about a week until classes start up again. So you should take that scroll out at least once every day and simply read through the whole thing. Don't worry too much about understanding it, just make sure you read the whole thing each day. After a few days I want you to copy down every thing in it that you don't understand on a separate scroll and bring that scroll to Iruka."

"Listen, I know I promised to master the scroll Iruka-sensei gave me and I will, no matter what but are you sure about that? I mean I've read that thing a few times and some of it just doesn't make sense to me."

"Kid it's something that will help build your foundation."

"Foundation?" Naruto asked causing Jiraiya to sigh.

"Yeah, like a house. When you build a house the most important part is the foundation because that supports everything else. Without a good solid foundation it'll just collapse once it's hit with any stress. The same applies to Ninja, without a good solid foundation as soon as a ninja runs into a competent opponent they usually lose and lose badly. If you want to be a really great ninja you need a really great foundation. That scroll your Iruka-sensei gave you can give you the beginnings of that foundation. Remember this is going to be your first mission as a shinobi, learn that scroll, learn kawarimi and then learn shunshin. It's very important that you do it in that order though. We'll meet again and I'm sure if you accomplish this mission you will certainly be on the path to becoming that great ninja you were telling me about."

"I'm going to be better than great, I'm going to be Hokage!" Naruto practically shouted.

"That's a challenging goal and it means you're going to need an even better foundation. You have some of the tools you need now and you know someone that you can trust. Someone who can help you get more tools and help you build your skills. I wish I could stick around and help you some more but I think you have enough to keep you busy for the time being. I'll try to stop by Konoha a little sooner next time but I really have to go now." Jiraiya smiled.

"Really, you can't stay even a little longer?"

"Sorry kid, I've stuck around a little too long as it is."

Naruto rushed forward again and wrapped his arms around Jiraiya's waist.

"Thank you." Naruto whispered.

"Hey, none of that now. It's the least I could do to help the future Hokage right?" Jiraiya stated softly as he ruffled the youngsters hair, disengaged from the hug, gave one last smile before his hands flashed through a few signs and he vanished in a swirl of leaves.

-ooo-

Jiraiya returned to his secret apartment. He pulled out the scroll he had taken from Naruto and put it off to the side. In a few moments he had a large box of scrolls out and was rummaging through it. It only took him a minute or so to find the exact scroll he was looking for. Holding it up he smiled.

'This will be a nice touch.' He thought as he wrote out a quick note and with a bit of blood and hand seals, summoned a toad.

"Yo Jiraiya!" The bright orange toad with blue spots stated as it raised it's front flipper.

"I need you to make a quiet delivery for me. You know the chuunin Umino Iruka right?"

"Sure the kid with the scar across his nose that teaches at the academy right?"

"Yep, that's him. I want you to make sure he gets these scrolls and this note, don't let anyone else know you gave it to him."

"You got it!" The toad stated with a salute before taking the scrolls and note to promptly vanish in a puff of smoke.

Jiraiya sighed as he looked around his apartment.

"I gotta get out of here before I do anything else and the old man catches me." He said out loud with a frown.

In a few minutes everything that made it his apartment was hidden by the seals he had deactivated when he first arrived and all of the equipment to make the place seem lived in was checked and reset. With a final sigh he left the apartment, returning to the street wearing his 'chuunin' disguise and vanished in a shunshin. Before much longer he was out of the village and quite close to one of it's borders. For the first time after leaving Konoha in many years he had on a small smile.

-ooo-

The next morning Iruka walked into his kitchen half awake. His eyes popped open in surprise when he saw the bright orange toad sitting in the middle of his kitchen table.

"Yo Iruka!" The toad called out.

"Excuse me?"

"Confidential delivery." The toad replied as it handed the two scrolls and note to Iruka.

As Iruka took it warily the toad smiled and with a wave vanished in a burst of smoke. The look of surprise shifted over to mild confusion as he read the short note. The confusion gave way to a soft anger that flared greatly as he opened the scroll with the sabotaged jutsu that had been given to Naruto. He gave the other scroll a glance and immediately recognized it to be a new copy of the old scroll on basics that he had given Naruto about a year earlier. There could only be one person responsible for the toad. Iruka was puzzled by the plea for secrecy in the note that accompanied the request to help Naruto with his old family scroll. Something about Naruto's situation was even stranger than Iruka imagined. It wasn't hard to miss that the annoying little prankster that he felt a kinship with was watched over by the Third Hokage. Apparently Lord Jiraiya also had an interest in the boy. The young teacher realized that the coming year was going to be a bit more interesting than he would have imagined not ten minutes ago. Looking at the replacement scroll given to him he thought that 'a bit more' could easily be an understatement.


	2. Chapter 2

**Gifts and Friends: Book One – ch. 2**

A/N: Despite coming out to a bit under 7,400 words I feel that a few parts in this chapter were hurried. So much for the theory of trying for 5k chapters. Thanks go out to Jozern for inspiring the section with Jiriaya. It wasn't originally in here but I like to think that it really fits the story and will help for some stuff later on. I've got about 9,000 words already done for what was supposed to be Ch. 3 and that's with holes. I'll probably break that up though. Not sure how long that one will take, hopefully before mid-March but I seem to be on a roll here so who knows. Oh yeah, see beginning of Ch. 1 for disclaimer.

Jiraiya stared into the flames of the very small and well shielded fire he had going deep in the woods near the Northeastern border of Fire country. He was very unhappy with what little he had learned about his godson's situation. This was not how things were supposed to be. The longer he thought about how he had allowed himself to neglect the boy, the more angry he became. He was mad at his old sensei Hiruzen and he was growing more and more angry and disgusted with himself.

"Enough of this moping around crap. So I can't directly act on the kids behalf? Well I don't give a damn anymore. There's bound to be plenty of opportunities that I can take advantage of." He muttered to himself.

The toad sage concentrated on the names of the toads he had checking in on Naruto from time to time in Konoha as he performed the summoning jutsu. In short order the smoke cleared to reveal two toads, one a very pale green and the other a light tan. While much smaller than many of the toads he typically summoned they would be considered very large for normal toads.

"Yo! Jiraiya-sama!" The two called out in unison as they each raised their flipper like hands in salute.

"O.K. I've had enough with the way things have been going with our little project in Konoha. From now on I want a full team of stealth toads watching the boy at all times. I want immediate verbal reports if anything unusual happens and we're going to finally give the boy as much support as we can get away with without old man Hokage or anyone else for that matter finding out."

"So you basically want to infiltrate your home village?" The tan toad asked as both amphibians eyes widened.

"Yes! That's exactly what I plan on doing. Do you guys think Minato would be at all happy with what's been going on? I've lied to myself for far too long and let that old monkey push me around over this. If his father hadn't died the boys name would be on our contract scroll already and I am most certainly going to get him to sign it as soon as I possibly can get away with it. He's one of ours. You know it, I know it and everyone back at Myobokuzan knows it. I've shamed the memory of Minato long enough. From now on we take care of him as much as we would take care of any other one of our own. No shriveled up old monkey is going to prevent us from helping the boy any longer."

"It's about damn time!" The tan toad practically yelled as it bounced up and down a few times.

"What kind of limits do we have?" The pale green toad asked.

"Don't get caught, that's it. Take anything you think the boy may need from my apartment that we've been using for the info drops and get it to him whenever you think necessary. If you need anything that isn't there send a messenger toad to me and I'll take care of it."

The two toads nodded and vanished with the characteristic smoke of a canceled summons.

-ooo-

The first day of the school years Academy classes arrived. Shino walked quietly through Konoha on his way to the Academy building for what was sure to be his final instruction year as an unranked student. He had an interesting Summer break, often working with his father to manage several un-hosted Kikai colonies that had been residing within his home for several generations of Aburame now. Each family within the Aburame clan had at least a dozen separate colonies at their homes in addition to whichever colonies they hosted individually. Shino arrived early as was his habit from the previous years he attended school here. He quickly settled into a comfortable position along the wall near the entrance next to a bush. In a relatively short amount of time most of his classmates arrived and as they began to cluster into small groups he found himself left alone. Glancing around he took note that Hyuga Hinata was also alone across the playground area from him and that Uzumaki Naruto was another student alone and not part of a group. He gave a glance to Hinata and almost smirked as her pale eyes fixated on Naruto. It was difficult to tell that her white Hyuga eyes were in fact following Naruto but Shino was certain they were. His gaze shifted back over to Uzumaki and he also watched the normally rambunctious blond. He often found himself intrigued by Naruto. Even more so this morning, for Naruto was quietly reading a scroll with an intense expression on his face. The young blond expressed a loud sigh, quickly rolled the scroll up and caused it to disappear inside his jacket. Naruto sprang to his feet and immediately fell into his typical mannerisms of loudly running around the recreation area. As Shino watched the young blond tear through the play area, he again noticed the open hostility many of the other students met Naruto with. A few moments later Naruto was hanging around Shikamaru, Chougi and Kiba. While those three didn't particularly welcome him they also didn't reject him like many of the others. Shino's eyes then tracked Uchiha Sasuke. He wasn't alone but he certainly looked like he would greatly prefer being alone as a significant portion of the girls in their class gravitated around the last Uchiha in the village. His eyes locked back onto Uzumaki, there was something subtly different about the loud blond then when they left for the Summer. His ever present dopey smile was there as always but every once in a while Naruto's expression would change ever so slightly. In those brief moments Naruto's smile was that of someone with a pleasant secret.

Before Shino could ponder further on Uzumaki he felt a tingle of unease from his colony. His eyes narrowed as he began to scan the playground in his area. There was some sort of predator nearby that his Kikai were unable to pinpoint. That was extremely unusual. Whatever it was, it was no threat to him and not likely to be a significant threat to his colony as a whole but it was certainly a threat to individual Kikai. He spotted a rather large but typical house fly. Just as quickly as he spotted it and dismissed it but before his eyes could focus elsewhere the fly vanished. Shino's attention immediately locked onto the area where the fly had been. He shifted slightly to look behind and under the small bush the fly had been lingering around. A small patch of orange caught his eye and he shifted more. Changing his new angle a little more revealed a rather large sized frog sitting in the bushes. His brow furrowed as he concentrated. No normal frog would have been able to hide it's presence so well from his Kikai or be able to snare a fly so quickly. It was also very unusual to even see a frog on the Academy grounds, there was no nearby open water for the amphibian. As he watched the amphibian he realized that it seemed to be watching one of the students. Shino followed it's gaze and was surprised to see that the frog appeared to be watching Naruto. He glanced back and forth between the frog and his hyperactive classmate thinking maybe he had made a mistake but the longer he watched the more sure he became that the frog was in fact watching Naruto. As he stared at the frog it suddenly shifted to look directly at him. Shino almost let his mouth drop open in surprise as he was certain that the frog looked irritated. A moment later it was gone. Shino had no idea were it had gone, it had left no trace or sign of it's passage. If he had any doubts about his own observational skills he would have thought he had simply imagined the whole incident. Where ever it had gone to it was far enough away that his Kikai quickly relaxed.

"You saw the toad didn't you?" Shino started, not quite jumping but almost as Hinata spoke after seeming to appear next him.

He was certainly stunned that she spoke to him at all. As far as he knew the quiet girl had never initiated any sort of conversation with anyone ever before, even the instructors had a hard time getting the young girl to speak more than a few words. He looked down and realized that there was a subtle but desperate plea to her question.

"Um...Yes. Toad? I thought it was a frog." The slightly shaken Shino spoke, still trying to reconcile the fact that Hinata never approached anyone yet here she was speaking to him.

"They are toads, closely related to frogs but definitely toads. They appear occasionally and watch Naruto. Usually it's a tan or light green one, this is the first time I've seen an orange one. You are the only person other than myself who has ever noticed one of them." Hinata stated and Shino noticed the earlier desperation in her eyes had faded slightly.

"Really? That is most unusual. Do you know how long it has been going on?" Shino asked as he wondered if the young girl had worried that she had imagined the amphibians.

"Three years that I am aware of, perhaps longer." She replied.

"Is it still here?" He asked.

"Yes, it moved to the other side of the recreation area when it realized you were watching it."

"It is not a normal toad."

"None of them ever are. That one used some sort of kawarimi or more likely a shunshin variant just now. I have noticed that they have advanced chakra circulatory systems and I have seen them using odd jutsu on two other occasions. That indicates they are shinobi toads."

"Shinobi toads. That is unusual. I did not think there was anyone currently in the village that used toads."

"The only living leaf shinobi that I am aware of with ties to toads is Lord Jiraiya of the Sannin but he is rarely in the village." Hinata stated softly.

Toads, shinobi toads especially, could be quite damaging to Kikai and Shino's family tried very hard to keep tabs on creatures used by other ninja that could be used against them. While it was possible that there was someone else contracted with the amphibians Jiraiya was the only one still alive that Shino was aware of the Aburame clan knowing of. Lord Jiraiya was rarely in the village so it didn't seem to make sense that these toads were doing his bidding. Even if they were, why Naruto? The only other notable user of toads in the village in recent times had been the Fourth Hokage, who had been dead almost a dozen years now. While hardly privy to his clans intelligence efforts, Shino was reasonably certain that if the village had any other active toad users he would know about it. It was also generally assumed that Shinobi creatures under contract tended to stay loyal to the village that their contract signers were loyal to. As long as Lord Jiraiya was loyal to Konoha, the toads ought to be as well. Since Lord Jiraiya was not listed as a missing nin like his former teammate Orochimaru, to Shino's knowledge anyway, the toads should be loyal to Konoha. Perhaps it was somehow related to the Fourth? Shino mused for a very brief moment before dismissing the notion. There was something, perhaps several somethings he was missing and he quickly assessed that further contemplation of this puzzle without additional information would most likely be pointless. As soon as he returned home later though he would be speaking to his farther about all of this.

Shino heard a click and glanced to the door as it opened. When he turned back Hinata was a good distance away, she had somehow moved without him noticing again. He shook his head, slightly confused by the young girls extremely uncharacteristic behavior but otherwise unconcerned. With a brief sigh he headed inside and a new school day began. The growing puzzle of Uzumaki Naruto would have to wait.

-ooo-

The rest of the day proceeded much like most of his previous academy days and almost before he knew it he found himself home. Thoughts of Uzumaki and apparently multiple toads ran around in circles in his mind. To the point that he felt he needed to discuss the issue with his father. It didn't take long at all before he found himself in his fathers study.

"Father."

"Yes."

"I noticed something rather unusual this morning just prior to the beginning of my classes at the academy."

"Indeed?"

"I noticed a toad that I strongly believe to have been a shinobi toad. It appeared to be watching Uzumaki Naruto."

Shino was slightly surprised as he caught the barest sound of his father sharply inhaling. Apparently his father was uncharacteristically surprised by his words.

"That is most interesting." Aburame Shibi stated softly.

"It was a rather unusual first day of the term. My observation of the toad also induced Hyuga Hinata to initiate a brief conversation with me about the toad. I do not believe she has ever initiated a conversation with anyone ever before."

"Intriguing."

"She claims that these toads have been watching Uzumaki for at least three years. To my knowledge the only active Konoha shinobi contracted with the toads is Lord Jiraiya of the Sannin. It seems rather unlikely that Lord Jiraiya would have assigned toads to observe someone such as Uzumaki. The Fourth Hokage was the only other signatory in recent times that I am aware of but I can not reconcile any reason or even being able to have the toads watch Naruto nearly a dozen years after his death."

"That does seem to be quite a puzzle." The older Aburame answered in an unusually quiet voice.

Shino nearly started at the subtle change in his fathers speech pattern.

"It seems that the issue is further complicated than I imagined. Is there anything you know regarding Uzumaki that would help explain my observations?"

Shino's father hesitated for a long moment while looking intently into his sons eyes.

"Nothing that I am allowed to speak of." The older man finally answered.

"Nothing..." Shino paused for a moment to stare just as intently back into his fathers eyes. "Perhaps I should simply continue my observations until I can form a more complete hypothesis."

"That would likely be the best course of action. Another possibility, although remote that the toads themselves are watching young Uzumaki. Perhaps they are scouting a potential signatory for their contract."

"That seems rather strange."

"Yes it would appear to be strange but one rarely knows what goals summons have of their own. It does pose an additional possibility that I suspect that you did not consider, even if it is a rather unlikely. Although..."

Shino looked up, confused that his father had stopped speaking and it was obvious that the older Aburame was concentrating intently. To add to his confusion he noticed that there was a slight tremor to his fathers hands. Shino's confusion faded as he looked up at his father in mild shock. He had never seen his father in such a state. Apparently something that Shino had stated managed to unsettle his father.

"Father?"

"One moment son..." The man continued to mentally go over his suspicions. "You must come with me and speak of this to the Aburame council."

"I do not understand."

"Your understanding is not required. In fact at this time it may very well be detrimental."

Despite showing no outward signs of any emotion, Shino was stunned as his father almost literally dragged him off, out of their personal residence and over to the clan meeting hall. Several of his fathers Kikai flew off ahead of them, dispersing to several other Aburame residences. Before he fully came to terms with what was going on Shino found himself standing next to his father in the center area facing three small tables that were arranged in an almost half circle. Despite feeling slightly uncomfortable being the focus of an unscheduled clan meeting Shino showed no reaction. In short order, at his fathers request, he quickly described the incident of the toad watching Uzumaki, along with his conversation with Hyuga Hinata. His father told him to sit in the general seating area as the older man turned and took his own seat among the other four clan council members. Shino heard one member whisper the name 'Kushina' before the clan head cast a sound barrier jutsu over the group. After a few minutes the council all nodded in agreement. Shino's father stood and walked over to his son.

"I am afraid that I can offer nothing that could answer your questions or even discuss any tentative conclusions or suspicions you may have. In fact the only guidance I can offer is the same that I have told you for many things in life, you must trust your own observations first over the words of others. You must especially be cautious of the words of those outside of our clan. I wish I could enlighten you more on this subject but I and all of the other elders are bound in this matter.

At that the deeply puzzled Shino gave his father a brief nod and left the room. As much as he wanted to know more of what his father knew, he knew that no further information would come from the man.

-ooo-

Back at the academy Naruto was sitting on his favorite swing reading through the scroll given to him once again. It was getting to the point where he had effectively memorized most of the scroll simply by the brute force method of repetition. He was completely alone since all of the other students had left over an hour earlier but for once he hadn't noticed anyone leaving. Naruto heard the door open and a few academy instructors appeared, leaving the building for the day. A few of them scowled slightly when they spotted Naruto but the majority of them simply ignored the youngster in orange. Naruto's face broke into a huge grin as he finally saw Iruka near the back of the group. His teacher was looking down, apparently reading something and hadn't seen Naruto.

"Hey! Iruka-sensei!" The boisterous blond yelled out.

"Naruto? What are you still doing here? Classes ended nearly an hour ago, shouldn't you be home doing your homework?"

"Actually I was going over some stuff and I had some questions for you." Naruto stated as he pulled out the old scroll that Iruka had given him last year.

Iruka's eyes widened slightly and he quickly caused the scroll he had been reading to disappear into his vest. He felt a bit of relief that Naruto didn't notice the scroll. Especially considering that it was a newer copy of the same scroll Naruto held. Neither of the two paid any attention to the other instructors quickly and quietly leaving.

"So what's the problem?"

"Oh man, like everything!"

"Naruto, I really don't think there's any way I can possibly cover 'everything' right now." Iruka said with a small chuckle.

"O.K. I understand." Naruto sounded ridiculously dejected as he looked back down.

"Tell you what though, I'm sure I've got enough time to cover one thing in the scroll. Is there anything in particular that is really giving you headaches?"

"I wasn't kidding when I said 'everything'." Naruto claimed with a pout.

"Naruto..."

"Alright already, there is one thing that is really bothering me. When I first started at the academy my kunai throwing wasn't all that bad but for the past few years it's been horrible. I've read the scroll you gave me a few dozen times and I've done everything it says about kunai but I can never get them to work all of the time!"

"Well that's usually pretty easy. Lets take a look at your throwing. Use that tree over there as your target."

"You got it!"

Naruto quickly pulled several kunai out of his pouch and began launching them towards the tree as Iruka watched him closely. It was immediately obvious that something was wrong. Only a single one of the kunai managed to stick into the tree and it was doing so at an odd angle.

"That's odd, your grip on the kunai looks pretty good and your throwing seems fine as well. Go get all of the kunai you just threw and bring them back to me."

In a few moments Naruto was carefully handing over all of the kunai he had failed to properly hit the tree with along with the one that had managed to score an almost proper hit. Iruka began to frown as he held each one on it's own. With each successive knife his frown deepened and his anger began to build.

"Are you o.k. Iruka-sensei?" Naruto asked, almost timidly.

"Yeah but I want you to try something for me." Iruka answered as he reached into his own hip pouch and pulled out a half dozen kunai that he handed to Naruto.

"You want me to use your kunai?" The blond asked in a shaky voice.

"Yes, but relax a bit first they're not going to hurt you and neither am I if you somehow manage to break any of them."

Naruto nodded, took a few deep breaths and began to throw the six knives at the tree one after the other. His eyes widened and his mouth fell open in shock as he realized that five of the six were now sticking into the tree. Also that the fifth had scored a glancing blow that would have stuck in along with the others if it had been just a few inches to the right.

"Hey they work!"

Iruka's frown disappeared as he looked at the huge smile that was plastered over Naruto's face.

"Of course. The problem isn't you Naruto, it's your kunai. The ones you've been using apparently have been defective. Lets see that scroll I gave you last year."

Naruto handed the old scroll over to his sensei, who quickly opened it up to the section that covered kunai.

"Ah, here's a bit of a problem. This happens from time to time with old scrolls like these. This is really supposed to be a simple overview and people tend to add their own notes to them. See these smudges here?" Iruka said as he pointed to a mass of blurred splotches.

"Yeah? I thought they might have been words a long time ago but I was never able to read any of them."

"Well when I was a kid the scroll skipped over how to judge the balance of a kunai. I think I spilled some juice on them back then, sorry about that. One quick way to get a rough idea about a kunai's balance is to hold it in your hand, placing your index finger perpendicular to the blade a little bit behind where the blade meets the handle. By opening up your hand slightly and twisting it the kunai should roll over your finger just a bit and balance on your finger. Here watch." Iruka said as he took one of the kunai that Naruto had successfully thrown and was shortly balancing it on his finger.

"Hey that's pretty cool." Naruto said as he stared intently at the balancing knife.

"Now watch one of the ones you had trouble with."

Iruka did the same thing with one of the first kunai Naruto had thrown. It quickly tipped forward and fell to the ground.

"Well that sucks but at least I know." Naruto grumbled.

"It's actually a bit worse than what you think Naruto. Each one of those kunai you first threw is different. Some are tip heavy and some are handle heavy. As far as I can tell, not one of them matches any of the others. Tell you what, why don't you just keep those six of mine to practice with. Just make sure you check any new kunai before you buy them, O.K.?"

"Oh you better believe it Iruka-sensei!" Naruto exclaimed as he thought about how he had been screwed once again.

"Well it's getting close enough to dinner time, I've got stuff to do after that and I'm sure you have homework, so I'm going to call it quits for this after school session but if you want I'll treat you to some ramen over at Ichiraku's."

"You're the best Iruka-sensei!"

The two left the grounds each with a smile despite their darker thoughts as they both thought about Naruto's defective kunai. A green and yellow toad watched as they left, deep in thought itself. With a slight scowl the toad vanished. Several moments later it reappeared in Jiraiya's apartment. It hopped over to a cabinet and with a few toad style hand seals it focused some of it's chakra into the hidden lock, causing the door to pop open. It looked over the mass of revealed scrolls and smiled as it spotted one in particular. Yes that one would be perfect, the green and yellow toad called out to one of it's brethren as it pulled out the scroll and then a second scroll as well. One more item and the first of their deliveries in years would be ready.

-ooo-

Naruto entered his apartment with a small smile. For the first time in a very long time he felt that he had finally learned something at the academy. Granted he had to properly learn about kunai from Iruka-sensei after hours but still, it was an improvement. Having Iruka treat him to a couple of bowls of ramen at Ichiraku's afterward certainly helped his good mood as well. Despite the warm feeling of those two bowls of noodles in his stomach, he decided to heat up a cup of instant noodles to top off. As he turned on his hot plate and placed a tea pot full of water on it he heard a soft thud behind him. Spinning around he saw that an orange frog with blue markings was sitting on his table. Naruto had the oddest feeling that the frog was somehow laughing at him.

"You're that frog from years ago!" Naruto cried out, causing the amphibian to frown and roll it's eyes.

Naruto's mouth fell open as the frog knocked over a small bottle of soy sauce that had been left on the table and began moving it's flipper around in the spilled liquid. In a few moments time to Naruto's stunned amazement the amphibian had wrote 'TOAD not frog' in the dark fluid.

"Oh! Sorry about that Mr. Toad." Naruto said as the toad rolled it's eyes again.

Naruto stared at the toad as it began to swell, much like it had years ago. In short order there was a new standard issue hip pouch and two scrolls on the table, off to the side of the spilled soy sauce. The toad smiled at Naruto, gave the boy a sort of salute and promptly disappeared into a poof of smoke. Naruto was certain that whatever was going on with the toads was still meant to be a secret. He broke into a huge grin as he opened up the pouch to discover it completely full of kunai. There had to be at least two maybe three dozen of the knifes tightly packed together. Naruto's grin somehow managed to get slightly larger as he pulled out a couple and checked their balance. Each of these new kunai was perfectly balanced as far as he could tell. Despite knowing that he shouldn't, he couldn't resist and let the kunai he was holding fly across the room. With a thunk and a slight ringing sound the knife was easily buried into the wall next to his door. Naruto looked at the two scrolls but decided to clean up the spilled soy sauce first. Once done he picked them up, puzzled that each was labeled 'kunai'. One thing that really caught his eye though was one of the two had a white spiral that matched the one on the shoulder of his jacket. He peeled that one open and discovered the strangest writing on the inside that first went around in a circle with a symbol for kunai in the center of the mass of writing. Unrolling the scroll further revealed long columns of odd writing that other than the occasional symbol didn't really match what he knew. His eyes widened slightly as he realized what these two scrolls must be and he put the one he had been looking at back on to the table. Pulling out the scroll Iruka had given him he unrolled it to the point where it gave a brief description of common seals. He was very familiar with the explosive tags described, even more so than what the scroll itself explained. The next paragraph though was about storage seals.

Naruto's smile reappeared in full force. He concentrated some chakra into his hand and placed it onto the kunai symbol in the circular mass of writing. There was a poof of smoke and he felt his hand pressed up slightly. As the smoke cleared he saw that there was a rather large mass of kunai stacked neatly together now sitting on top of the scroll. Closer examination showed that they were actually bound together with some ninja wire in an alternating fashion. A rough count later and he was certain that there were at least a hundred of the throwing knifes now sitting on his table. There was one single one though not bound up with the others. Naruto looked closely at it before touching it. It was different, slightly longer and a darker color than any kunai he had ever seen before. There was a bit of paper wrapped around it that he quickly pulled off. He was half expecting it to be an explosive tag and was somewhat disappointed to see that it was just a note. Written in neat hand writing that looked girlish to Naruto the note stated:

'Kunai of the Habanero!'

'Hands off or DIE!'

'This means you Minny!'

There was a familiar spiral after the writing and Naruto noticed that there was also a spiral etched into both sides of the blade of the dark kunai as well. He looked very thoughtful as his hand drifted up to lightly touch the matching spiral on the patch on his shoulder. He couldn't be certain but part of him suspected that this particular kunai must have belonged to his mother. He closed his eyes as his grip tightened on the handle. He was never going to let this knife go.

Naruto gasped slightly as he remembered something he had been saving. Gripping the dark kunai he rushed into his sleeping area. He pulled out a drawer and pulled a hidden kunai off of the back of the drawer itself that he had taped there a few years ago. It was the very last of the kunai that the orange toad had given him when he first moved into his apartment years ago. For a while he considered it his 'last kunai'. A quick check showed that as far as his new ability went, it was perfectly balanced. With smile he placed his 'last kunai' on the end table next to his bed and then lay the dark one down next to it. A moment later he reached into the hip pouch he was wearing and pulled out one of the six kunai that Iruka had given him and placed it on the table to the other side of the dark kunai. His eyes lingered on the three knives for a few minutes, until his tea pot started to whistle. Rushing back to his kitchen he rushed around a bit before returning to his bed stirring the cup ramen, waiting the necessary three minutes as he sat on his bed staring at the three blades. A few hours later he was lying on his bed in the dark still staring at the kunai he couldn't see. Sometime after midnight he finally fell asleep, the three kunai becoming an odd representation for the family he never knew.

-ooo-

Things quickly settled into a routine over the first week of classes for Shino. The mornings before class started almost always matched that first one, only with no further toad sightings and no additional conversation with Hinata. He had hoped to spot more of the amphibians. He had even gotten into the habit of leaving several Kikai on a constant search pattern around all of the other students. Shino was left to often being mildly amused at many of his classmates antics. He was beginning to find Sasuke's fangirl headaches nearly as entertaining as Naruto's antics. In addition to observing all of them each morning he began to watch them all during lunch while he reviewed the morning lessons. He often wondered just how many of them were truly suited for the life of a shinobi that they all supposedly aspired to. His current assessment of his classmates did not assign a high number for those he thought might become successful shinobi.

Shino watched quietly as the rest of his classmates practically erupted out of the doors of the academy down the hall from him. He was once again puzzled by this behavior since the majority of the students were more than a little loud when classes were dismissed for the day. His thoughts on his fellow students were becoming somewhat repetitive. He frowned. After all, were they not training to become ninja, masters of stealth? His father told him that their behavior should change as they got closer to their graduation to become Genin. Otherwise they would likely not survive long in their chosen career. That would take place in less than a years time and again Shino was struck by the thoughts that not many of his fellow students would succeed judging by his observations so far.

The hall became silent as the door closed behind the last of the students in front of him but Shino could sense another student behind him. Turning slightly to confirm what he was already sure of, he glanced at Hyuga Hinata as she quietly walked down the same passage. Despite their short and odd conversation that first day she had completely returned to her quiet withdrawn self. She was perhaps the only student at the academy even quieter than himself. He nodded to the young girl and she nodded in return but no words passed between them. It would be unseemly for him to approach her and despite that one time she had approached him she was normally far too shy to approach anyone on her own initiative. Besides he had received enough negative reactions over the years from the mere fact that he was a member of the Aburame family that he also never really approached anyone. Although his own colony was rather small by his families standards, the fact than any insects resided within his body at all tended to disgust most people who were aware of his clans peculiarities. Even the vast majority of people who were not familiar with the exact nature of the Aburame and their insect allies would usually find themselves uneasy around any his clan. He was certain that Hinata was not uneasy around him due to his Kikai but the young girl seemed to have strong personal reasons to shy away from everyone. So other than an occasional nod, nothing further than that one odd conversation ever passed between them. Shino frowned slightly as these thoughts ran through his head and he realized that with those nods not only was he likely the closest Hinata had to a friend but that she was the closest he had as a friend as well.

As he exited he noticed that Hinata had hung back so he continued outside without holding the door for her. Whatever strange and distant friendship the two may share it was not enough for her to feel comfortable around him without some additional influence. Standing in the doorway for a moment he could see that many of the students were still on the grounds waiting for their parents. He usually walked home by himself and was somewhat surprised that so many of his classmates did not. His eyes tracked Uzumaki Naruto, as usual it was hard not to. Ever since he had seen that odd toad watching the loud blond, Shino himself had been paying more attention to Naruto as well. In many ways Naruto was his polar opposite, loud, obnoxious and usually a poor student. Shino watched quietly as a few parents arrived. He was struck by the one thing he did share with Naruto, they were both shunned by most of the people in Konoha. Something stirred within Shino and he walked up to Naruto. He thought it odd as he walked that after years of avoiding his classmates that it would be a strange amphibian and someone as loud as Naruto that caused him to do something he never did before.

"Why do they dislike you?" Shino asked softly.

Naruto jumped slightly and looked up, his surprise ridiculously evident on his face for a moment. Nobody ever talked to him first, he was the one who always had to go up to people. Even then most people quickly made it clear that they did not want to associate with him.

"I dunno. I never really did anything to them." He muttered as he glanced to the parents walking away in the distance before he looked down. The obvious but fleeting pain that appeared on the blonds face surprising Shino once again.

"I do not believe it is because of your pranks. The…disdain the adults express towards you is far greater than such behavior would seem to warrant."

"Yeah I had these problems way before I started pulling pranks anyway."

"We have similar problems it seems."

"What do you mean?"

"Few people care to associate with myself or members of my clan."

"Really? Why?" Naruto looked up his eyes growing wide.

"You do not know?"

"No idea."

"It is because of the Kikaichuu those in my clan host."

"What're kikaichuu?"

"Kikaichuu or simply Kikai also commonly known as Destruction Beatles enjoy a symbiotic relationship with members of the Aburame clan. At birth we are each entrusted to host a colony of Kikai. In fact many of the older members of my clan host more than one colony." Shino stated as Naruto looked confused.

"What?" Naruto asked through squinted eyes.

"We always have bugs with us." Shino said while sighing slightly.

"Oh, that doesn't sound too bad, why would people not like you guys because of that?"

Shino looked at Naruto intently, again slightly surprised at his classmates ignorance."

"Although very few people know the details of our relationship with the Kikai, most of the people who do know are uncomfortable with the idea of insects living within someone's body. That discomfort is picked up by the majority that don't know the specifics of our relationship with the Kikai and they also avoid us."

"They live inside you!" Naruto's eyes grew wide.

"Yes."

"Isn't that kind of gross?"

"I do not think so. To me it is normal and I can not imagine being without my Kikai."

"It doesn't hurt?"

"Not at all."

"Sounds pretty weird though."

"I guess it would to someone outside of my clan."

At that moment three older men arrived, the last of the parents to do so, judging by the number of students still on the academy grounds. One had blonde hair, one was very large, bordering on fat and the last seemed to nearly be asleep as he walked. The blond and the large man were berating the third, apparently over making them late. As they reached the steps to the academy grounds Ino, Chouji and Shikamaru ran up to them, well Shikamaru actually strolled over slowly.

Each of the three men gave both Shino and Naruto uneasy glances, although the look they gave Naruto was subtly different than the look they gave Shino. Naruto didn't notice but Shino immediately recognized the barest trace of fear in each of their eyes when they looked at Naruto.

"There is something about you that they fear." Shino stated quietly as the group headed off and drifted out of earshot.

"What!" Naruto exclaimed.

"I saw it quite clearly Naruto. I may not be the equal of a Hyuga but I am certain I saw a brief flicker of fear in each of them when they looked at you."

"You gotta be imagining it. None of the ninja in Konoha are afraid of me, that's for sure."

"Maybe it is not you, maybe you remind them of something. Do you know anything at all about your parents?"

"No, I really don't know anything about them." Naruto answered in a quiet voice.

"I would imagine that if it were something your parents had done you would know. Also my Kikai are uneasy around you at times."

"Bugs get uneasy?"

"Basically. At least sometimes around you they do."

"That seems pretty weird."

"Indeed it is."

"You know I think you're pretty weird too." Naruto said with a smirk.

"So says the boy wearing orange trying to be a ninja."

"Hey I like orange!"

"That may be but it is a poor choice for a shinobi." Shino glanced at his watch. "I must leave. You have a good evening Uzumaki." Shino gave one last glance to Naruto before he turned and walked away.

"Sure...oh, you too!" Naruto said with a grin.

Although Naruto never noticed as he wandered out of the academy area heading to his apartment, there was one last student that had watched the whole exchange. Shino smiled slightly to himself as he walked away and saw Hinata standing inconspicuously in the academy doorway. Hinata's eyes were slightly wide as she processed what little she had heard of their conversation. Shino, the quietest boy in their class had approached Naruto, the loudest and started a conversation with him. Hinata felt a small flash of jealousy that even the quiet Shino could approach Naruto when she could not.

Neither boy nor Hinata noticed a small dark brown toad that had watched the entire conversation. The small toad looked over to a bush near the gate to the academy grounds, nodded and ran it's flippers through a few signals. A soft faded yellow toad that was hiding in the bush nodded itself in reply and quietly began to follow Shino.

-ooo-

From that day on Naruto began sitting next to Shino in the classes they shared. Although he still spent most of his class time staring wistfully at Sakura or glaring at Sasuke. Both activities greatly increased Shino's hidden amusement. Naruto and Shino also quickly got into the habit of eating together at lunch nearly every day. All of the other students generally avoided them both so it worked out rather well. Although there were times that Naruto would hang out with Shikamaru, Chouji and Kiba, he would invariably drift back to Shino. Even though he was often telling his quiet friend outrageously exaggerated tales of his exploits with the other boys, Naruto found himself spending less time with the other three class trouble makers. Each day he found himself drawn more and more to his quiet friend. In fact he was beginning to honestly consider Shino a real friend which was something that none of the others had attained. He got in trouble with Shikamaru, Chouji and Kiba. He looked to Sasuke as a rival and even though he couldn't describe it in words, he felt that the Uchiha was a kindred spirit in many ways. Shino though was different. Despite the short period they had been 'friends', Shino was becoming trusted.


	3. Chapter 3

**Gifts and Friends: Book One – ch. 3**

A/N: Sorry about the delay. In case anyone missed the note I put up in my profile, I basically got stuck on a scene. Finally finding a work around I discovered that the chapter was more than twice as long as I wanted it to be so I broke it up a bit. The good news there is Ch. 4 and 5 are further ahead than they used to be and just might show up a lot sooner than it took for me to finish up this one. As usual see typical disclaimer at the beginning of Ch. 1 and please excuse any spelling or grammar mistakes. It's getting late, I'm getting a bit fuzzy and if I don't get this out tonight it might be another week before I get another chance to do so.

-ooo-

Along Eastern shore of Fire country, nearly as far North as one could go and still be near the water without leaving the country one could find Port City. In the back corner of a seedy bar Konoha's Toad Sage was eating dinner with one of his summons.

"So how has he been doing?" Jiraiya asked the toad sitting on the table.

"Well considering that he just returned to the academy, we all think he's doing very well. Although he hasn't gotten the hang of doing Kawarimi reliably yet. He has pretty much memorized that scroll Iruka gave him and has even gotten Iruka's help with his kunai. He apparently has been getting defective equipment but that chunin kid straightened him out. Just to be sure though we gave him a couple of scrolls filled with kunai and a hip pouch with a couple of dozen more. One of the scrolls used to belong to Kushina. I think it was the one with one of her old Whirlpool chakra channeling kunai." The toad replied.

"I'm almost afraid of what he could do with that." Jiraiya said with a chuckle.

"He's also become quite friendly with an Aburame kid that is in his class."

"Really, now that's interesting. Hmm, if that pans out I think we can use it. Yeah I can see how that could come in very handy." Jiraiya said as a very devious smile appeared on his face.

"You've got an idea?" The toad asked, as he watched Jiraiya write out a quick note.

"Yeah, I'm going to give you a scroll with a good solid jutsu for each element. Stuff that won't pop like a freaking soap bubble if the kid has half as much trouble with the basic crap they teach at the academy these days as I suspect he's having. Make sure the kid gets this scroll after he gets the hang of the Kawarimi but have it go through the Aburame if he continues being friends with Naruto, either directly through that kid in his class or get one of his clansmen or better yet one of his parents to act as a middle man. Just make sure that they let him know that it came from his toad friends and that we're trying to set up a second channel to get him stuff in case we can't visit his apartment anymore.

"You got it Jiraiya-sama!" The toad gave him a salute and promptly vanished in a puff of smoke.

-ooo-

"You are too loud." Shino stated in his apparently subdued manner one day. They were eating lunch as the first of the leaves showed a slight change in color up in the trees due to the approach of Fall.

"That's just the way I am! Besides I have to make up for how quiet you are!" Naruto nearly shouted in reply.

"It is a poor habit for a shinobi who wishes to enjoy a long career, let alone one who wishes to someday be Hokage. It also causes you to miss seeing things."

Naruto looked like he was about to go off on one of his typical 'Hokage tirades' for a moment but he then paused with a puzzled look on his face.

"What do you mean about missing seeing stuff? I see all sorts of stuff that lots of people miss."

"That may be, in fact perhaps you should apply that to your lessons?"

"Aww, come on Shino!" Narutos puzzled look was replaced with one of slight irritation.

"Well let's see." Shino paused as he looked around the academy recreation area for a moment before his eyes passed over Hyuga Hinata standing off to the side away from everyone. He smiled as he saw her glance timidly at his blond friend and softly bite her lower lip before quickly glancing back to the scroll she was studying. Shino chuckled silently to himself that he was becoming rather skilled at knowing exactly where Hinata's pale eyes were looking.

"To prove my point I will write down something about one of our classmates that pertains to you. We will seal and date the note for today and someday if you ever notice this fact on your own I will open it for you and we will then see how long it took you to notice something that I believe to be ridiculously obvious yet it is something you seem to have no clue about."

"Say again?" Naruto stated as he again looked confused.

"O.K. There is something that I see and think is obvious, yet you don't see it. It involves you and one of our classmates. I will write it down and date the note. When you finally see what it is we will open the note and see how long it took you see."

"Uhh, o.k. If you say so." Naruto said as he rubbed the back of his head.

Shino laughed to himself in his head.

The rest of the day passed much like the recent previous days. In a seeming flash Shino and Naruto found themselves standing in the recreation area near the front gate as the rest of their fellow students left for the day. Before long the boys stood there in the empty area by themselves. The odd quiet didn't last but for a few moments before the doors opened once again and the teachers began to leave the academy. Shino took note that Naruto began to fidget and even once cast a quick nervous glance his way. The doors closed and a few seconds after the last instructor left through the gate the doors opened once again. Shino looked up, taking note that the one to now appear was Iruka-sensei. Naruto waved and called him over as he pulled out a rather worn looking scroll. Shino immediately recognized it as being the one thing that Naruto always seemed to be reading whenever he had a spare moment.

"Iruka-sensei!" Naruto called out.

"Hey Naruto, Shino. Any particular reason why the two of you are still hanging out around here?"

"Both of my parents are out on a mission so I am not required to be home immediately." Shino answered.

"Ah, I was hoping that you could answer a question I had about one section of the scroll." Naruto stated as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Not a problem Naruto. What section this time?"

"Well it was in the health and fitness part. It says that long distance running is a critical part of training and that didn't seem all that important to me."

"Well on the surface it may not seem that way but it is really important, primarily from an endurance perspective. I myself run about ten miles when I go out, which is five days a week. Without using chakra either. I'm sure that Shino runs as well, right Shino?"

"Of course. Although my parents currently restrict my running to only two miles per session and I currently only run four mornings during the week. I believe they will increase my distance as I lower my time closer to the six minutes per mile target."

"Wow. I had no idea it was that important."

"It's one of the best ways to develop overall endurance, especially for cardio-vascular capacity. There are several training areas that have running trails that go around their perimeters along with numerous running trails around the outskirts of the village. One of my favorites is one that goes up the Hokage monument. That gives you a really good workout with the way the trail goes up and down several times through it's duration. The only thing I would worry about in your case Naruto would be for you to over do things. If you plan on adding running to your routine than I suggest that you should do the same basic routine that Shino does."

"Thanks Iruka-sensei! I don't know what I would do without you."

"Not a problem Naruto. Say since Shino's parents are out on a mission, how about I treat the two of you to ramen at Ichiraku's?"

"That would be GREAT!" Naruto yelled out as he jumped into the air.

Naruto and Iruka looked over to Shino.

"That would be quite acceptable Iruka-sensei." Shino said with a slight bow.

"Ichiraku's is the best! You're going to love it Shino! I eat there every chance I get, it's my absolute favorite!"

Shino chuckled softly at his friends enthusiasm for this Ichiraku noodle shop. Neither Iruka nor Shino was at all surprised by the non-stop ramen centric monolog Naruto kept up all the way to the small restaurant. Shino spent most of the meal silently watching the interaction between Naruto and Iruka-sensei. It was obvious that they were very close. This seemed at odds with Naruto's performance at the academy. One more thing to add to the growing mystery of Uzumaki Naruto. Shino was somewhat stunned as he watched his friend polish off a fourth bowl of the steaming noodles in the same amount of time that he and Iruka finished a single bowl.

"Hey Iruka-sensei, I've got a kunai at home that's a little different than all of my others. It's a bit darker and it feels kinda weird." Naruto asked.

"Well I've got a bit of time, how about we swing by your place and I'll check it out?"

"That would be great! Hey Shino do you want to come too?"

"I also have some unallocated time and would like to join you."

Iruka paid Teuchi for the six bowls of ramen, gaining a smile from the older man and the three of them set off into the village. Before long they were inside Naruto's kitchen area, Iruka and Shino standing around the table as Naruto disappeared into his sleeping area for a moment before reappearing with not only the spiral etched dark kunai but his two other special knives. Naruto carefully handed the dark kunai to his teacher who looked at it with a slightly puzzled expression.

"Looks like a Whirlpool chakra kunai. These are pretty rare these days and quite valuable. Where'd you come across something like this?"

"Umm, it was a gift from a friend. I think this one used to belong to my mother." Naruto answered quietly.

"Hmm, what about those two?" Iruka asked, deciding not to press Naruto on exactly how he acquired the dark kunai and he most certainly did not want to be talking to the boy about his mother.

"This one is one of the ones you gave me the other week and this one was given to me a few years ago by the same, uh, guy that gave me the dark one." Naruto answered with a slight hesitation.

"Well the one I gave you is just a standard issue kunai, nothing special about it. Lets see that other one that you got a few years ago."

Naruto's hesitation vanished as he handed over his oldest kunai. Iruka looked slightly puzzled as he held it.

"Is there something wrong with it?" Naruto asked.

"No, not really. Don't worry, there's nothing wrong with it. This isn't a standard issue kunai though. It's slightly heavier and see how the color is slightly different than the one I gave you? This one is made out of a much better quality of steel alloy. Looks like a high end type of stainless steel. It's got perfect balance and it will hold not only a sharper edge than a standard kunai but it will hold that edge for a longer time through more abuse. Most ninja won't spend the extra money for these kind of kunai because we tend to lose a lot of kunai between training and missions. Looks like you've got a pretty good friend there for them to give you a kunai like this."

"I thought so." Naruto said quietly.

"Listen I hate to cut this short but I've got some class stuff to take care of for tomorrow. You two have a good night and don't stay up too late." Their instructor said as he let himself out of the small apartment.

"That seemed a little odd." Shino stated a few moments after Iruka left.

"What's that?" Naruto asked.

"Iruka-sensei seemed to suddenly become slightly nervous and then abruptly excused himself."

"You know, I thought he left a little quickly there myself."

"I believe it was when you stated your belief that your chakra kunai was once your mothers that originally disturbed him. He then started to talk about the other kunai. It seems to me that was a distraction technique. There is something I could attempt that might tell you for certain whether or not that Kunai did indeed once belong to one of your parents."

"Wait you can tell if this was my moms? Really?"

"I doubt I can differentiate between your mothers chakra or your fathers but since that is a chakra kunai it is likely that whoever it belonged to may have left something of an impression of their chakra within the metal itself. My Kikai may be able to tell if that chakra impression has any resonance with your own. Provided that the impression is there of course."

"I'm not sure I understand."

"Children tend to have chakra that resonates with their parents chakra on some levels. With a weapon such as this my Kikai may be able to see if your chakra matches."

"O.k. If you say so. What do I have to do?"

"Well first off, have you channeled any of your chakra into this kunai?"

"You can channel chakra into a kunai?"

"I'll take that as a no. You can theoretically channel chakra into just about anything but some materials are far easier than others. May I see the kunai?"

"Uhh, sure." Naruto answered as he handed the dark kunai over to his friend.

Shino stared at the blade and mentally commanded some of his Kikai. A few of the beetles appeared from his sleeve and hovered very close to the blade of the kunai in Shino's hand. After a few minutes they flew over to Naruto and flew slowly around him for several minutes. They suddenly jumped in mid-air and quickly flew back to Shino, who closed his eyes as they communicated to their host.

"It seems you are an even greater puzzle than I imagined." Shino stated as he handed the kunai back to Naruto.

"What?"

"Hmm. Well to start with your kunai definitely has a resonance with your chakra, sort of anyway. I would say it is certainly from one of your parents, my Kikai also believe it was indeed your mothers. The real oddity though is you."

"Me?"

"Yes. It seems that you have two distinctively different types of chakra. The vast majority has a partial base resonance with the imprint within the kunai. That is exactly what you would see between a parent and child. Although there are traces of a strange chakra that is unsettling to my Kikai. It's almost as if you have three parents in some way. Perhaps you have some sort of bloodline limit."

"I might have a blood limit?"

"It seems to be a strong possibility. Granted my Kikai and myself have never encountered anyone remotely similar to you in this regard. I will endeavor to see if my father knows what it could be. Considering my last conversation with him regarding you though I doubt that he will be helpful."

"Wait, you've talked to your dad about me?"

Shino looked at his friend for a quiet moment, debating exactly what to tell him.

"Do you know about the toads?"

"What about toads." Naruto asked quietly as he looked down.

Shino was shocked, it was obvious that Naruto knew something about the Toads.

"The appear to be watching you."

"Watching me? Wait, that makes sense now that I think about it." Naruto exclaimed.

"I take it that you did not know about their clandestine observation of you yet you seem to be far less surprised than I thought you would be."

"Well, can you keep a secret?"

"Barring torture or something like a Yamanaka mind jutsu and of course as long as it doesn't negatively affect my clan."

"I've gotten presents from a toad a few times. When I first got this apartment a few years ago and then again shortly before this term started. I don't know why they would be interested in me."

"It may be someone who has signed the Toad Summons contract and not the Toads themselves. Although my father did raise the possibility that it is the Toads themselves that are watching you. He stated that they may wish for you to be a signatory to their contract. I thought that was odd since to my knowledge summons creatures usually let the people on the contract take care of such things."

"So we're looking at either the Toads or someone on their contract being the reason why they're watching me and giving me things?"

"If you want to take it that far, then yes."

"To be honest I'm tempted to not dig into this. I got a note with the first set of presents that stated if it was discovered that I was receiving anything they would get into trouble for helping me out. I don't understand why they would be watching me or why you and your dad are so interested."

"It could be that the Toads are interested due to your chakra oddities. As for the Aburame, we are always keenly interested in any sort of summons such as the Toads. Toads, shinobi Toads especially can devastate a Kikai colony with ease. Gathering intelligence on such creatures is something that our clan as a whole always does."

"You're not going to get into trouble with your clan for talking to me about this kind of stuff are you?"

"I doubt it. Most clans have their own intelligence gathering objectives. Although the specifics of such activities are not readily available it is common knowledge that such things go on. Nothing I have spoken to you about has been deemed 'Secret' so I can discuss it with you. You after all, are my friend."

"Thanks Shino." Naruto practically whispered.

"You are welcome. I should probably be going. I suspect you now have a lot to think about."

"What about you? What do you make of all of this?"

"I believe that at this time there is insufficient information to even begin guessing at all of the mystery that surrounds you Uzumaki Naruto. Although I must say you are certainly one of the most interesting individuals I have ever encountered."

Naruto laughed and Shino actually smiled enough that it was just visible above his collar.

"O.k. then I'll see you tomorrow at the academy."

"Tomorrow." Shino replied with a slight bow.

-ooo-

For the rest of the week Naruto was oddly subdued. Iruka worried about the boy but said nothing. The young instructor was certain that Naruto would come to him if he had any questions. He did feel an immense sense of relief to see that Naruto spent even more time than usual talking quietly with Shino through the week. Naruto's birthday was this weekend and Iruka was thinking that maybe he should talk to the Hokage and see about acquiring a special present for his favorite student.

-ooo-

Shino wandered aimless through the streets of Konoha. The Memorial Festival was being celebrated around him. He had been looking for Naruto for several hours now and had yet to find even a trace of his friend. Even though they had really only been friends for less than a month Shino was beginning to see Naruto as his closest friend. Why the young blond would vanish on a celebration day was a mystery that the young Aburame found himself completely fixated on. He had checked Naruto's apartment, which he still thought curious that someone so young lived on their own in these times. He had checked Ichiraku's and was stunned to find out that Naruto hadn't been there at all this day. Finally one of his Kikai returned with the only fresh lead on his friend. Within the hour he found himself trudging up the side of the Hokage monument and shortly after reaching the top he discovered Naruto sitting on top of the head of the Fourth.

"You are not participating in the Memorial Festival?" Shino asked.

"Nah, I don't really care for this one." Naruto answered quietly.

"Is not the Fourth Hokage your idol? This day marks one of his greatest victories."

"Yeah, that's why I come up here. Things generally don't go well if I stay in the village for this one."

"Really? That seems most unusual. Is it not also your birthday?"

"How'd you know that?"

"Naruto, you really need to pay more attention to your lessons. It was a very simple piece of intelligence gathering."

"Oh. Yeah, I guess you're right."

Shino stared at his strangely subdued friend.

"Would you come down if I bought you a bowl of ramen for you birthday?"

"Really! You'd do that for me? Of course I will then! Lead the way!"

"Only one bowl though. I do not believe I can possibly afford to satiate your appetite for ramen." Shino said with a bright and obvious smile.

Naruto instantly perked up to his normal self and the two headed off, back down the mountain and back into the village.

-ooo-

'Shit! Shit! Shit!' Anko thought as she felt the flare of one of the most intense killing intents she had ever experienced, something that might even give her a run for her money when she was really angry.

She knew immediately that it was Naruto and she could almost taste the evil taint of the Kyuubi's chakra that she could feel an extremely faint trace of within Naruto's own chakra as she got closer. She jumped and seemed to fly through the air heading almost directly towards the malevolent psychic aura. She landed well up on the wall of a building before immediately pushing off with a chakra enhanced jump that made it look as if she had bounced off of the building. Twisting in the air she landed about halfway between the group of people and the nearly growling Naruto.

"I won't let any of you hurt him." Naruto choked out in a rough voice.

Anko looked back over her shoulder and her eyes grew fractionally wider as very thin, nearly invisible tendrils of red energy faded in and out of existence around the boy. Her eyes widened slightly as she noticed that he had what had to be a chakra kunai judging by the color. That was when she noticed the body of another young boy on the ground just behind the short blond. She frowned when her nose noticed a minute trace of blood in the air and her eyes locked on the trickle of red on the ground near the unconscious boys head. She spotted the twisted sunglasses and judging by his hair along with his clothing she assumed that the other kid must be one of the Aburame clan. To confirm her guess a dark cloud of Kikai began to appear and gather above the unconscious boy. Her eyes widened even more as the cloud of insects spread out in a barrier between the crowd and the Aburame while two clusters of the bugs broke away from the main swarm and took up flanking positions to each side of Uzumaki. They looked all the world as though they were backing the short blond up for whatever could happen next. It took a lot of effort to turn away from Naruto and the bugs but she forced herself to glare harshly at the crowd.

"Why don't all of you assholes knock it off and get lost before I have to hurt any of you. I'm going to be really, really pissed off if you don't, you simply would not believe the amount of paper work I'd have to fill out if I hospitalize a whole mess of civilians." Anko stated with a sadistic smile that sent shivers through many in the crowd.

She really had no desire to fight any of the crowd no matter how easy it would be to demolish all of them. She released the strongest killing intent she felt the civilians could handle as she turned her back on the growling Uzumaki and she gave the crowd one of her more 'insane' smiles. Although considering that they were ignoring the psychic pressure pouring off the the blond kid she didn't think they'd do much with her own washing over them as well. Shinobi fighting civilians was extremely frowned upon in Konoha, not that it would be any sort of actual fight. Academy students fighting civilians might be a different story but there was no way that she would let this situation get to that point. Anko sighed in relief as she heard a pair of soft thuds as two other ninja landed between her and the unconscious kid. Out of the corner of her eye she noted that each of them were Aburame. With three of them glaring at the crowd and a much larger mass of Kikai suddenly growing in the air there was a marked lessening of the tension in the air along with a very noticeable increase in the fear radiating from the civilians. A moment later she felt the barest whisper of chakra and a few leaves swirled past her. With a very quick glance to her other side she saw that Kakashi had arrived.

One of the crowd took one look at the odd gray haired ninja and his eyes widened. It was pointedly obvious that merely the appearance of Kakashi had penetrated the mans alcoholic haze in a way that Anko hadn't managed despite her killing intent coupled with the kids. The man grabbed another by the arm and the two quickly made themselves scarce. That set off most of the rest of the crowd into retreating rather quickly, leaving just a couple of extremely drunk individuals that needed a few moments more to realize that they were now badly outnumbered. With a few grumbles and glares they also left.

Naruto glared at both Anko and Kakashi for a moment but once he saw the two older Aburame's with a very large mass of Kikai hovering over Shino he let out a large sigh. Before anyone could react though Naruto's eyes rolled back and he immediately passed out.

-ooo-

"Report." The old man stated simply.

Anko looked the Hokage directly in his eyes. She was going to have to be careful with this one.

"Well, I was cruising through the festival trying different types of dango from several vendors when I felt some pretty intense killing intent and some traces of the Fox's chakra. I immediately headed towards the source of the psychic pressure and quickly found Naruto standing between a nasty looking group and that Aburame kid. Before anything more could happen two adults from the Aburame clan arrived followed almost immediately by Kakashi. I felt the presence of an Anbu squad take up flanking positions around the crowd but they never revealed themselves. The sight of four shinobi took most of the bluster out of the crowd so they quickly dispersed. The Aburames took the Aburame kid while Kakashi and I took Uzumaki to the hospital since he had passed out. Although knowing Uzumaki, he's probably already made his escape from that place. One really odd thing I noticed was the behavior of some of the Kikai that were there. When I arrived a mass of the beetles were forming a barrier between the unconscious kid and the crowd. I assumed they were the kids personal swarm. What was really interesting though was that two smaller groups split off from the swarm and took up flanking positions on each side of Uzumaki."

Sarutobi eyed Anko for a long moment. She looked tired and seemed to be playing that up in a strangely subtle manner for her. The more he studied her the more he felt that something was missing. She certainly wasn't acting like the Anko he was familiar with and while he was certain that she was leaving something out he was pretty sure that whatever it was didn't really matter for this.

"Very good Anko-chan. I thank you greatly for looking out for the two boys. I can see that you're tired. This all seems very straight forward so you can go. I send for you if I decide that I need anything more."

"Thanks old man, you're the best!"

Anko gave a big smile coupled with a large grin to both the Hokage and Kakashi before she jumped out of the window and vanished.

"She is far enough away now that there's no way she can hear us. Still activate the privacy seals if you would Kakashi." The Hokage stated softly as he continued to look out the window that Anko had jumped out of.

Kakashi nodded to the Sandaime, ran through a few hand seals before turning and concentrating some of his chakra into a subtle seal array engraved near the door. While there was no noticeable difference in the room the gray haired Jounin knew that not even the Hokage's nearby Anbu guards would be able to listen in on them now. Kakashi looked out the window after Anko himself.

"She was following him." The famous copy-nin stated.

"Really? Now that's interesting. Are you certain?" Sarutobi asked.

"I'm not one hundred percent sure but if she wasn't her trail through the festival was extremely co-incidental."

"It is interesting that she referred to him as Uzumaki. Many of the Shinobi call him the fox brat, herself as well in the past. You know she was specifically requested over a month ago for a D-Rank mission scheduled for today. It was paid out as a B-Rank though, along with all expenses being covered. Supposedly as an added incentive so she would take the mission. Even odder was the stipulation that the mission wasn't to be re-assigned to anyone else if she refused."

"That certainly sounds a little odd. What was the mission?"

"A traveling merchant wanted her to review all of the different dango vendors for the festival. Apparently her reputation as a dango addict has spread far and wide, while making her out to be some sort of dango connoisseur."

"You're kidding."

"After this evening I now suspect that Lord Jiraiya was somehow behind this mission of hers." Sarutobi winced slightly at the thought of entering another heated argument with Jiraiya over Naruto.

"Hmm, I guess that would make sense and it would explain why she calls him Uzumaki now but wouldn't Lord Jiraiya notify you about such an action?"

"Hardly. Naruto is the one subject that Jiraiya and I do not agree with each other about. In fact I'm reasonably certain that our arguments about Naruto over the years is one of the main reasons why he avoids checking in personally and usually uses a messenger toad. Apparently he has been here sometime in the recent past without checking in."

"She also brought up the same oddity I noticed about the Kikai. I don't believe I've ever seen a swarm act like that with someone so young that hadn't worked extensively with an Aburame before. Although considering that their host was in danger and Naruto was defending him they could simply have been supporting what they felt to be the best option for the safety of their host."

"Yes that is interesting. From what I understand Naruto and Shino have become rather close friends in a relatively short period of time."

"Also I don't believe Anko noticed it but the two adult Aburame's did express some concern to me regarding Naruto. It almost seems as though the Aburame clan is acting as though Naruto is being scouted as a potential clan ally."

"Now that is very interesting. I may have to look in on Naruto a bit more often it seems. You can leave Hatake and please send Umino Iruka in on your way out, I believe he has been waiting patiently and rather worriedly out in the hall.

Kakashi let himself out, nodding to a puzzled looking Iruka before the silver haired man vanished. Iruka entered, shut the door and bowed to the Hokage.

"Hokage-sama, I take it this isn't really a good night to be asking for a favor regarding Naruto?" Iruka asked causing the Hokage to sigh softly.

"He was involved in a relatively minor altercation during the Memorial Festival earlier."

"Was anyone hurt?"

"Aburame Shino was knocked out by what we believe to have been a thrown bottle but he wasn't seriously injured. What is this favor you'd like for Naruto?"

"That's a relief that there were no serious injuries. I treated both Naruto and Shino to ramen earlier this week and Naruto asked me to look at a kunai that he had been given. Turned out to be an old Whirlpool chakra kunai, he claimed it was a gift from a friend but was evasive about who gave it to him. Then Naruto really surprised me by saying that he thought that it used to belong to his mother. It had the engraved spiral on both sides of the blade so it's almost certainly from someone in the Uzumaki family."

"I just may have to kill that old perfert." Sarutobi muttered too softly for even Iruka's shinobi hearing to hear.

"Excuse me Hokage-sama?"

"Nothing, Iruka, don't worry about it. So how exactly what kind of favor would you like for Naruto?"

I was thinking that he's been much better this year at the academy and has finally started to seriously study that scroll of basic skills and tips I gave him. In fact I think he's memorized the whole thing even though he doesn't seem to understand half of it yet. So I was hoping that you would allow me to give him a picture of his mother as a special birthday present. He was very fixated on the kunai and he's been much more serious lately. I'm certain that you and I together could impress on him that it would have to remain absolutely secret."

The Hokage stared intently at Iruka for a few moments, making the chuunin somewhat uncomfortable. Finally the older man let out a great sigh.

"I hope we don't wind up regretting this but I'll dig up a picture of his mother and you will be there when I give it to him. Considering everything I learned this evening it is probably best if we bring Aburame Shino along as well."

"Of course Hokage-sama! Thank you!" Iruka said with a deep bow.

Sarutobi waved him off and Iruka quickly left the office. For quite some time Sarutobi Hiruzen sat quietly in his chair sadly gazing at the picture of Namikaze Minato that hung on the wall with his own picture along with the First and Second Hokages.

-ooo-

Shino shifted ever so slightly. He was doing a rather good job of concealing his nervousness but when the Hokage himself along with one of his academy instructors showed up at his family home requesting his presence with no explanation it certainly doesn't make one relaxed. It also certainly did not help that he still had a mild headache to go with the bandage on his forehead. To make the whole thing even worse he was rather irritated with himself that he had not even see the bottle or brick or whatever it was the hit him. The whole incident from last night was surreal to say the least. Even more so once he was told about what happened after he had been rendered unconscious. With the way Kikai do much of their communication It wasn't all that surprising that two members of his clan arrived as quickly as they had but to have a Special Jounin appear before his clan members and 1,000 Kakashi to appear an instant later really stretched the boundaries of co-incidence. The near instant presence but non-appearance of an Anbu squad shattered that boundary beyond any hope of reconciliation without more information. To add to the mystery the three of them were shortly standing outside of his friend Naruto's front door, with the Hokage himself knocking. It wasn't long before the door opened and a bleary eyed Naruto was peering out at them.

"Old man? Iruka-sensei? Shino?" The sleepy blond stated.

"Naruto! How many times have I told you to show proper respect for the Hokage!" Iruka demanded.

"Now, now Iruka, I think we can let that slide today. Can we come in Naruto?" The Hokage said with a wink towards Naruto.

"Oh! Yeah, sure, come on in. Sorry about that." Naruto blurted out as he threw the door open and scrambled out of the way.

"No need to apologize. In fact it should be me apologizing for bothering you and Shino here so early after the two of you had a rough night. Although I really do think that you should have stayed in the hospital until they discharged you." The Hokage said with a smirk as the three visitors entered.

"Heh, yeah, sorry about that. I really can't stand that place." Naruto said as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Now we don't have much time but with a bit of prompting from Iruka here because you've been doing so well at the academy lately we decided to give you something rather special for your birthday. Now there are some conditions with this gift. I don't want you showing it off to everyone. It stays in your apartment. This is a rather difficult secret and you must not go around trying to find out any more. Is that o.k.?"

"I guess so." A rather confused Naruto answered.

"Good, here you go then. I had planned on giving you this along with some other stuff when you were older but as I was saying before Iruka here convinced me that you would be able handle this remaining a secret. So happy birthday." The Hokage handed him a rather flat square that was wrapped up in bright orange wrapping paper.

For a moment Naruto stood there, still somewhat sleepy and confused as he held the small package. A smile began to appear on his face and he began to tear into the paper. A picture frame was revealed that had a picture of a woman with long red hair. He slowly tore his gaze away from the photo and locked eyes with the Hokage.

"Yes, that is a picture of your mother. Now I want you to promise me that you will not pester poor Iruka about her. He knows a lot more about you than I will allow him to tell you about. I'm very sorry that it has to be that way for now but it is very important that certain secrets about you must stay secret for a while yet. If it helps, I was planning on letting you know everything when you made Jounin."

"Thank you." Naruto whispered as his eyes traveled back down to the woman with the red hair.

"Iruka has told me that you received a kunai that you think was hers?"

"Hmm? Oh yeah, see!" Naruto exclaimed as he reached into his jacket and pulled out the dark kunai.

Sarutobi gently took the knife away from the distracted Naruto. He quickly gave it a complete going over.

"Is this the only one you have?" The Hokage asked, finally breaking Naruto out of his trance like state.

"Well, it's the only one that is dark and feels different. The rest that were with it were all regular kunai."

"May I see the others as well?"

Naruto nodded and once again reached into his jacket. This time though he pulled out the scroll that the Whirlpool kunai had been in and he handed it to the Hokage.

"The rest are all sealed up in here."

Sarutobi unrolled the scroll a bit and instantly recognized the handwriting of the seal array.

"Well this storage scroll was definitely one of your mother's"

"My mom could make sealing scrolls?"

"Oh yes, she had a knack for creating storage scrolls. Sealing was one of her many interests. Listen Naruto, I have to get to work so I'm going to leave you with Iruka and Shino here. I've made arrangements at Ichiraku's for you and your two friends here to eat as much as you like there tonight. If I get some control on the paper work later I may even join you. Don't forget that you can't go talking about your mother." The Hokage said in a stern and commanding voice as he handed the kunai and rolled up scroll back to Naruto.

"Thank you! This is my best birthday ever!" Naruto exclaimed as he lunged forward and hugged the Hokage tightly.

The aged Kage smiled softly for a few moments before separating from Naruto, giving all of them a light hearted smile and vanishing in a swirl of leaves.

"Why do I find it unbelievable and yet completely unsurprising that you call the Hokage 'old man' to his face." Shino muttered after a brief silence, causing Naruto to laugh and Iruka to chuckle softly.


	4. Chapter 4

**Gifts and Friends: Book One – ch. 4**

A/N: Standard disclaimer at the beginning of chapter 1. Surprise! I really didn't think this one would come out as fast as it did. Please don't get used to that kind of pace though. With a bit of luck I might be able to get Ch. 5 out by next weekend or shortly after though, it's already up to 3,300 words. We've got a live in babysitter for a couple of weeks as my Mom is visiting and she's taking up a lot of child care stuff that goes with having two young children. I hope I got all of the day/week transitions finished properly in this chapter. I had tried to change a couple things and went back and forth a few times so there's a chance I missed something. I'm my own beta-reader and editor so please excuse any minor spelling or grammar errors.

-ooo-

Jiraiya paused as he walked down the road and frowned as he began to feel a slight pulling sensation in his chest. With a puff of smoke he vanished from the road to find himself standing at Mt. Myobokuzan. An odd wave of psychic pressure that felt like irritation washed over him as he materialized, pulling his attention to the ground. Staring up at him was none other than Fukasaku.

"Uh-oh." Jiraiya stated softly.

"Uh-oh? Is that all you have to say for yourself? It's my understanding that you've got at least a half dozen toads running an intelligence operation in Konoha? Have you lost your perverted mind?"

"Hey! It's for Minato's kid! Sarutobi wasn't taking care of the little guy like he told me he was going to and he forbid me to get involved. I'm not doing anything that we shouldn't have been doing years ago." Jiraiya found himself practically screaming at the small gray haired toad.

"Calm yourself Jiraiya! I can still whack you with my cane if I have to. Perhaps it would be best if you explain the situation to me. Shima has some Goliath Grub stew cooking up that should be ready soon. Lets go eat, that should give you the time you need to calm down enough to tell me the whole story."

Jiraiya simply nodded and silently followed Fukasaku.

-ooo-

The slight chill of the typically mild winter of Fire Country hung in the air as Shino and Naruto talked in a secluded practice area reserved for academy students after school one day.

"I just can't seem to get this stupid clone jutsu to work!" Naruto practically wailed.

"You seem to be overloading the jutsu." Shino replied quietly.

"What do you mean?"

Shino sighed. "You seem to be pumping far too much chakra into the jutsu. That is the most likely reason why it always fails for you. From what I have read Kawarimi is not as sensitive to larger amounts of chakra, which may explain why you have more success with that jutsu. Although to be honest you showed a remarkable improvement with Kawarimi this past Fall compared to what you were able to accomplish with it at the end of the previous school year. Even the basic henge is less sensitive than the bunshin no jutsu and I believe you also have had greater success with henge than with bunshin."

"I'm trying damn it! I can't seem to put any less chakra into it than what I'm doing now." Naruto's frustration was beginning to creep into his voice.

"Hmm… That is unusual. The basic problem seems to be that you simply have the most incredible chakra reserves I've ever even heard of for an academy student. In fact I would say you current chakra well is greater than many Jounin."

"Hey isn't that a good thing?"

"Not if you can not control it. We could try something unusual if you think you can handle it." Shino smiled.

"Anything!"

"Let my Kikai feed on your chakra. They should be able to diminish your reserves to the point where the jutsu will have a greater chance of working."

Shino's smile got slightly wider as the now wide eyed Naruto paled.

"Well I did say anything." Naruto muttered softly as he nodded.

A moment later a good number of Shino's Kikai were flying through the air towards Naruto. The young blond shuddered as the small beetles began to land on him and crawl all over his skin. Other than the sensation of the bugs crawling on him he didn't really feel any different."

"Let me know as soon as you feel any drop in your chakra."

"You better believe I will. This may not be as bad as I thought but it's still pretty freaky."

About ten minutes passed. Shino looked at Naruto deeply puzzled. There seemed to be no effect. With a mental command he sent all of his remaining Kikai over to his friend. Naruto definitely looked unhappy but he wasn't about to give up now. A few minutes more passed.

"Are you certain you haven't noticed any significant drop in your chakra?"

"Not really, wait, there, yeah definitely something now."

Shino's eyes widened as several of his Kikai removed themselves from Naruto and began drifting back to their host. They almost seemed drunk as they flew oddly through the air. He had never seen Kikai actually stop feeding on chakra without a command to do so. His father would be very interested in this.

"Naruto you should also attempt to create more bunshin."

"How many more?"

"At least a dozen, more if you can visualize them properly." Shino noted that more and more of his colony were removing themselves from his friend. "You should attempt the jutsu as soon as my Kikai leave."

Naruto had closed his eyes as he concentrated on creating far more bunshin than he ever had even thought possible. As he felt the last of the Kikai leave his skin he looked up to Shino, who simply nodded.

"Bunshin no jutsu!" Naruto practically roared as his hands quickly flashed through the seals.

Shino stepped back in surprise as nearly three dozen Naruto images appeared. They all were grinning wildly and Shino himself was actually smiling as he walked up and waved a hand through one, causing it to vanish with a bit of smoke.

"Congratulations." Shino said with the largest smile Naruto had ever seen on the young Aburame.

-ooo-

Several day later they hadn't gotten any further towards limiting Naruto's chakra. The only real progress they seemed to be gaining for Naruto was that he was becoming quite used to the Kikai feeding on his chakra. Shino and his Kikai on the other hand were able to do a large number of Aburame jutsu through the use of the chakra the beetles had consumed from the blond boy. Naruto was getting more and more aggravated with the lack of progress as each day passed and had started pushing himself further than ever before, often working eighteen hour days. That was if one considered the time he spent in class part of that working. Shino on the other hand was worried that all the work they were doing was actually making the problem worse. He didn't mention it to Naruto yet but he was beginning to think their actions were actually increasing the blonds chakra reserves without increasing his control over those reserves. Shino was finding this problem particularly annoying and he was beginning to worry about his friend. Perhaps it was time to speak to his father.

"We need help with your problem. I will discuss this with my Father." Shino stated, causing the strangely subdued Naruto to simply nod in agreement.

Hidden off to one side of the training area a small tan toad smiled in the odd way the amphibians did when he heard Shino's words. It was time, probably past time in some ways but 'now' was going to probably work best for their next objective.

-ooo-

Aburame Shibi sat at his desk in his office going over some of the household finances and family reports. He felt a nervous tingle from his colonies and nearly jumped out of his chair when a toad fell from his office ceiling and landed on the corner of his desk. He eyed the toad warily while trying to calm his colonies as they grew more agitated now that the toads presence could easily be felt. The toad actually shifted colors, changing from the pale green his wife had painted his office years ago over to a dark brown. Shibi took note of the scroll the toad had in it's mouth and eyed the amphibian curiously. The toad almost seemed to pout silently that it didn't get any more of a reaction from the much taller Aburame and it dropped the scroll onto the desk. Shibi reached out cautiously and took the scroll and noticed that there was a small note taped over it. His eyes grew wide as he read the note claiming to be from Lord Jiraiya. Normally he wouldn't put much credence to any note claiming be from someone as notorious as Lord Jiraiya but having it delivered by a toad was a solid endorsement to it's authenticity. He smiled slightly and picked up an inter family report.

A few hours later Shibi heard a knock at his door and looked up from the report he was reading regarding some success one of his cousins was having breeding a faster flying breed of Kikai.

"You may enter." The man said.

"Father, I have been working with Uzumaki Naruto in an attempt to help him learn how to properly do the academy bunshin jutsu. We have had little success. Although we did have something of a break through a few weeks ago by having my swarm feed upon Naruto's chakra. Since that time though there has been no discernible improvement."

"Uzumaki agreed to that?"

"He is quite desperate to succeed."

"Interesting. I did not suspect that one so young would willingly subject themselves to such an experience simply to improve their skill at a low level jutsu."

"Naruto can be...extremely tenacious when he sets his mind to something. By having my entire colony feed on his chakra until they stopped on their own accord he was able to generate three dozen bunshin."

"Your entire colony fed upon the boys chakra to the point where they disengaged without your command to do so? Interesting." Shibi stated as Shino suddenly eyed his father with suspicion.

"You do not seem surprised at this turn of events."

"I am not but as I stated before, it is not something I am allowed to talk about."

Shino nodded but did not press his father any further. Although he was beginning to grow annoyed that there was some massive secret regarding his friend that seemingly every adult knew about yet he was unable to piece together the clues he currently had into a comprehensive picture of the situation.

"Is there anything that you would recommend?" Shino finally asked.

"Several avenues of exploration do come to mind. My first thought would be simply to add more Kikai to your efforts but I do not believe that you are yet ready to host more Kikai just yet and a second colony is currently out of the question. I also doubt that young Uzumaki would be comfortable working with additional Aburame. It seems that at this moment the best thing would be to have you sign the family summoning contract."

"S-sign the family summoning contract?" Shino stuttered slightly and he was so shocked that his sunglasses nearly fell off of his face.

Shino stood there quietly. It was unheard of for an Aburame to be added to the contract prior to becoming a Genin. He stared at his father with his mouth literally hanging open as he father pulled out an large scroll along with a small sharp knife, a calligraphy brush, several candles and a small glass flask of blood. Shibi glanced over to the scroll sitting on his desk that the toad had left him. He probably should have given that to Shino but he was still contemplating exactly how he was going to use that for his own advantage.

-ooo-

There was a spike of strange chakra and immediately every Kikai that was feasting on Naruto's chakra flew into the air. An instant later the summoned swarm vanished as they un-summoned themselves. To say that Shino was shocked was an understatement. He had read extensively about his families Kikai summons, losing a significant amount of sleep last night. Never throughout the recorded history of it's use had they ever un-summoned themselves without some sort of massive threat to the swarm.

"We should try something different. I think you are pushing yourself too much and the additional Kikai apparently will not work. Whatever that secondary chakra that you have is, it is something that the Kikai do not care for."

"Well if you've got any ideas I'm all ears. Wait, what do you mean pushing myself too much?"

"Naruto you have been putting in fifteen or sixteen hour days for roughly two weeks. It is amazing that you haven't collapsed yet."

"Really? I didn't think I was pushing myself that much. Besides I always feel fine in the morning." Naruto said as Shino sighed.

"I can ask my father for some scrolls for jutsu that are not as chakra sensitive as the Bunshin no jutsu or we could try making explosive tags. Creating explosive tags is supposed to be very chakra intensive."

Shino almost flinched when he saw the look on Naruto's face. He suddenly had a bad feeling about this and immediately began hoping that he would not regret this idea.

"Y-you k-know how to MAKE tags?" Naruto was literally shaking as he stuttered through the largest grin Shino had ever seen on his blond friends face.

"I would not say that I actually know how but I do have a book that explains the basics of how they are created."

"Hell Yeah! Lets do that then! You should have told me that sooner!" Naruto exclaimed as he started practically jumping.

"I will ask my father for the jutsu first and if that doesn't work then we will attempt to make tags."

Naruto practically deflated at Shino's words but it didn't last long as he thought about learning some actual jutsu.

Later that evening after Shino had returned home he quickly found the small book about explosive tags. After skimming through it he decided that it would be far better when he asked his father about some jutsu that might help his friend he would definitely ask about finding a better text with a more comprehensive explanation than to start with this book. Despite the fact that it was his idea Shino shuddered slightly at the thought of Naruto being capable of creating his own explosive tags. He decided to stop for a small snack on his way to his fathers office when he encountered his father in the kitchen and quickly explained the conclusions he had come to regarding solving Naruto's problem after their last attempted solution had failed spectacularly.

"Wait here, I may have something in my study that will help you. I recently have had a jutsu scroll come into my possession that was apparently meant to help with this very situation." Shino's father said as he left the kitchen, leaving the slightly confused Shino behind.

Shino's confusion grew as his father returned. The normally stoic man was practically bubbling with amusement as he entered the kitchen with two medium sized scrolls. Well 'bubbling' as much as any Aburame did.

"A toad appeared in my office the other day with this scroll. It was actually the same day I had you sign the Kikai summoning contract. The toad somehow slipped through all of our security without alerting my Kikai until it decided to drop off of the ceiling onto my desk right in front of me." Shibi stated as he held one scroll up.

"A toad entered our home undetected?" Shino was stunned at this news.

"Yes. It seems that your observation of one of their 'operatives' along with your recent friendship with Uzumaki has induced them to view us as potential allies with whatever their grand plan for Uzumaki is. The note I received expressed concern that they might not be able to continue assisting your friend at his apartment and that they hoped to be able to use our clan as a secondary route if necessary."

"That is most interesting. I take it by your recent actions that the clan as a whole does not have any issues regarding Uzumaki or the toads?"

"While some members of the clan have expressed concern over Uzumaki's prankster reputation, especially how that may influence you, as a whole the clan is far more interested in the possibilities of forging an alliance with the toads. In fact you should do anything you deem proper to help foster such an alliance if any opportunities arise."

"Such an alliance would be of great benefit to the clan."

"Precisely. Keep in mind that whatever you may or may not discover about Uzumaki should in fact be considered secondary to the clan's goal regarding the toads. You should make sure that Uzumaki attempts to learn each of the jutsu in the scroll. That will almost certainly reveal his elemental affinity. That could prove beneficial in your endeavors. As for tags, this scroll should be very suitable." Shibi stated with a smile as he held forth the second scroll.

Shino nodded as he took the two scrolls and contemplated his fathers smile.

"There is more than what you are saying."

"Of course. I am trying to help without breaking any laws. I along with every adult ninja in Konoha know one secret regarding your friend. Additionally the senior members of the clan now suspect a second and far more sensitive secret concerning Uzumaki. The toads are one indicator that lend support to our suspicions, that second scroll may turn out to come close to confirming those suspicions. I must caution you though, if you discover anything at all pertaining to the mystery of Uzumaki you must keep such discoveries to yourself. It may be safe to talk to Naruto himself but you must exercise extreme caution in this matter."

"Thank you father." Shino said with a bow before turning a leaving.

-ooo-

"My father gave me this for us to try." Shino said as he followed Naruto into the blond's apartment and held out a scroll.

Naruto's eyes widened almost as much as Shino's did when the young Aburame saw that Naruto had the storage scroll the Hokage had told them was created by his mother unrolled across the kitchen table. There was a partially filled scroll taking up space on the table as well. On top of the incomplete scroll was a bottle of ink and a calligraphy brush.

"He said yes?" Naruto exclaimed as his eyes grew wider, his hands shook as he reached for the scroll.

"He did indeed say yes. Although he also stated that this scroll is actually from one of your toad friends. There is a price though. Also I am curious as to what you are doing with those scrolls." Shino said as he held firmly onto the scroll.

"Price? Oh the scroll... wait the toads gave that to your dad?"

"Yes and yes. Although the toad asked my father to give this to you, my father decided that I could only turn this to over you if you promised not to engage in any pranks for one full month once you accept."

"No pranks for a month! It's been weeks since I've done any as it is and now I'll have to go another month! I don't understand why they didn't give it straight to me!"

"That is correct one full month. He was quite firm about getting your word. He also mentioned that the toads have some concern that they would not be able to give you stuff at your apartment. They apparently have decided to setup a back up route to you through my family. My father simply decided to take advantage of this in order to acquire your 'no prank' promise." Shino stated with a smile as Naruto stared at him in open mouthed shock for a few moments, the scrolls on the table temporarily forgotten.

"Well I'm sure it'll be worth it, I guess. It had better be worth it. O.K. I promise I won't pull any pranks for month." Naruto seemed to almost be talking to himself for a moment there before he looked directly at Shino.

Neither boy noticed a pale green toad looking through the window from a tree across the back alley that was trying hard not to laugh.

"Good. My father will be pleased to hear that. You do not appear surprised that the toads are concerned about being able to continue their relationship with you through their current means."

"Nah, I was actually kind of half expecting them to have to stop altogether. Since that very first note I got from them said they'd have to stop if they got found out, it's actually something of a relief that they're looking at other ways of staying in contact. It's kind of nice having someone watch out for me, you know."

"I can well imagine." Shino replied with a touch of sadness for his friend.

"So about that scroll." Naruto said as his smile returned.

"This scroll has one relatively simple jutsu for each element. They all seem very insensitive to large amounts of chakra. In fact they may each require more chakra than a typical Genin has available. My father believes that it would be wise for you to attempt each one of them. Doing so should tell us what elements you are strong in and what elements you are weak in. Since these five jutsu are relatively simple not only is there less of a chance of you overloading them and causing them to fail but they may in fact become more powerful the more chakra you put into them."

"Wait, what do you mean by elements I'm weak and strong in?"

"You really have to pay more attention in class." Shino sighed.

"Give me a break, you sleep more in class than anybody other than Shikamaru."

"Yes but I know the material, you apparently do not. Also none of the instructors are aware of exactly how much I sleep in class. Now you do know what the five elements are right?"

"Of course I do! They're Fire, Wind, Lightning, Earth and Water."

"O.K. then you also know that nearly everyone has an affinity for an element?"

"Sure! Wait, what do you mean affinity?"

Shino sighed again.

"The chakra of most if not all ninja work generally work better for one element. Some of the luckier shinobi will have a secondary affinity. Also there are some extremely rare shinobi that are completely neutral with no affinity. Granted, primarily due to the use of hand seals, while most ninja can do ninjutsu for any element, a ninja will have an easier time using ninjutsu of the same elemental type that their chakra is associated with. So most ninja tend to use ninjutsu that matches their affinity, with a few from other elements tossed into their arsenal as well in order to cover the weaknesses of their primary elemental affinity. Additionally when a ninja decides to learn direct elemental manipulation they always start out with the element their chakra leans to."

Naruto looked at Shino with obviously intense concentration.

"I guess that makes sense." He finally muttered despite looking somewhat confused.

"Now I have even better news. He gave me this as well." Shino said as he handed Naruto the scroll and then pulled a second scroll out of his jacket.

"What's that?"

"As I discussed your problem with my father and informed him that we were also thinking about using that book I have about explosive tags he gave me this scroll. It has a much better explanation about tags than what is in my book and much more extensive than the limited information we are taught in the academy. In addition to covering explosive tags it also covers electrical shock tags and some theories about other elemental tags."

Shino felt a bit uneasy as an odd look of joy plastered itself onto Naruto's face.

"T-there are M-MORE than just explosive t-tags?" Naruto stuttered.

"Yes, but this also comes with the same price as the jutsu scroll."

At that Naruto's eyes grew wide and his joyful expression vanished as he realized exactly what price he would be paying.

"ANOTHER MONTH!" The blond shouted.

"Yes."

Naruto looked down a look of furious concentration on his face.

"O.K. Another month. I can do two more months."

"Remember no pranks at all."

"Yeah, yeah." Naruto suddenly grinned evilly.

"What are you thinking now?" Shino asked, slightly uneasy at his friends expression.

"Well, it's almost like a prank itself."

"What is?"

"Me not pulling any pranks is a prank on its own. Everyone will be going crazy trying to figure out what I was up to." Naruto laughed and Shino felt more at ease as he smiled as well.

"Looking at it that way you are correct, it is almost like a prank."

"So lets see what we've got here." Naruto said as he opened the scroll.

"We should start with either the Doton or Suiton techniques." Shino stated calmly.

"Why?" A baffled Naruto asked.

"Well I am certain that the Katon and Raiton techniques are more dangerous for academy students. Additionally Fuuton jutsu can be very tricky to pull off without doing damage to your surrounding area. Further more almost all decent Katon jutsu also require more chakra than a typical Genin has at their disposal. That shouldn't be a problem for you though. In fact I believe it is far more likely that you would overpower the jutsu, torch yourself and much of the surrounding area as well. So it's probably a good idea for us both to learn the Suiton jutsu before learning the Katon."

"And just how am I supposed to use the Suiton jutsu if I set myself on fire anyway?"

"That is why we should both learn the Suiton jutsu."

"Oh."

"Now, I am extremely curious as to what you seem to be attempting to do with your mother's storage scroll." Shino asked.

"Oh yeah! Well I figured I would copy it and make my own storage scroll. That's actually my fifth attempt. The other four all failed. I haven't been able to find my mistake but I'm going to get it to work!"

"I am reasonably certain that your endeavor will not work by simply copying a scroll created by somebody else. There is at least one chakra component to sealing, perhaps more, that you do not appear to have included in your attempt. Although I am certain that once we go through the scroll on tags you will enjoy much greater success."

"Well what are we waiting for! Lets go learn some jutsu!"

-ooo-

Seven days later in one of the training areas.

"Suiton: Mizurappa!" Naruto yelled out as he concentrated intently.

He actually felt the water forming before his lips as he exhaled. A few moments later a huge smile lit up his face as the nice sized stream of water died away. He was again putting in those fifteen hour days he had started doing when he was trying to master the Bunshin jutsu. Except for one night where he had passed out sometime after 2:00 a.m., that one had be a twenty hour day. He was tired, much more than ever before in his life but it was worth it. All in all learning the first jutsu they had decided on had taken him a full week. Granted he still went to his classes during that week, Shino had insisted. It was definitely worth it, he now knew a jutsu that actually worked for him nearly every time. His smile faltered as he looked over to a frowning Shino. Shino had far less trouble learning the technique and had successfully pulled off the Mizurappa jutsu in only four days while putting in about a third of the time Naruto had.

"It seems that you are wasting a ridiculous amount of chakra. Even worse it doesn't seem to be helping your basic problem." Shino said as several of his Kikai reported back to him after leaving Naruto.

"Great, just great. So can we try the Katon jutsu next?" Naruto said completely failing at hiding his enthusiasm of the prospect of learning a fire jutsu.

"Most assuredly we can not. If anything, I now believe you are more likely to lose control of a katon jutsu than I believed last week. The trouble you had with the Suiton jutsu could mean that your chakra has a fire alignment. If that is the case I would feel much more at ease once you have learned the other jutsu. With the chakra you have, you could accidentally burn down a few buildings if your chakra is aligned with fire. We should work on the Doton next." Shino stated evenly.

Naruto frowned slightly but he unrolled the scroll to where it described the Doton jutsu and he began to form the seals for the jutsu one after the other, following the scrolls instructions exactly. He sighed softly as he fought off a yawn. This one was going to be an early night.

"Naruto I believe that you should not tell anyone that you have learned this jutsu." Shino stated calmly as he waited for the inevitable outburst from his friend.

"What! Why not! I was so going to impress Sakura with this!"

"Naruto the very core of being a ninja is deception. If you truly wish to impress Sakura you would be better served by learning the entire scroll and becoming a skilled Genin. You mission record after graduation should be more than enough to impress anyone if you continue the path you have set yourself on with all the work we are doing."

"I don't know." Naruto looked nearly heart broken as he thought about it before he smiled slightly. "Actually you're right. I just got so excited about finally getting something to actually work well for me that I forgot." Naruto stated quietly.

The Doton only took him five days, short ones at that. Although in many ways he felt it was a rather boring jutsu. Shino again had it down in less time than what it had taken Naruto but only by a day. As far as he could tell from his Kikai he was using far less chakra than Naruto but despite being far more efficient with his chakra he couldn't quite match the size of the wall of earth that Naruto could force out of the ground. That was especially frustrating since he knew his friend was actually trying to limit the amount of chakra he was pumping into these jutsu.

"Doton: Doryuu Heki!" Naruto roared as he slammed his hands into the ground and a three meter high, four meter wide and nearly a meter thick dirt wall popped up out of the ground. Boring it may be but Naruto could see that it could be very useful. He looked over to Shino and smiled as his friend smiled as well. Shino's smile faltered as a few of his Kikai left Naruto and communicated to him a rough idea of Naruto's chakra level.

"No good?" Naruto asked and Shino shook his head no.

Naruto sighed. He was sure Shino would want them to learn the Fuuton next.

"We should probably take a day off."

"What?" Naruto practically screamed.

"Surely your basic skills scroll mentioned that rest is a critical component for training?"

"Well yeah but I thought that was for my physical exercises."

"No. If anything it is even more critical that people rest periodically during their jutsu training. You have astounding chakra levels and a simply unbelievable recovery rate so you can push yourself much further than most people can in regards to learning jutsu but you should still rest on occasion. Tomorrow is a Sunday as well and therefore it is my scheduled complete rest day for the week. Take the day off, read about the next jutsu or go through your basic skills scroll again. You should also treat yourself to Ichiraku's. Just make sure that you do not engage in any strenuous physical activity and no jutsu training for the day.

Naruto simply nodded in reply as he stifled a yawn. A day of rest actually sounded pretty damn good right now.

-ooo-

Late in the afternoon two days later Naruto was standing in the training ground he and Shino had been using. His fingers ran through the seals as he concentrated his chakra. This felt different somehow. He could feel the jutsu fall into place as it seemed to flow along his arms. He couldn't explain it but this jutsu simply felt right. After his fingers passed through the final seal he slammed the palms of his hands together and concentrated on guiding the wind produced by the jutsu. The leaves along the ground scattered as a huge gust of wind roared to life in front of Naruto. Shino's eyes widened considerably as the wind actually carved a thin and shallow gully into the ground the instant before it slammed into a boulder near the edge of the clearing. The rock was roughly a meter across and Shino's mouth fell open next as a grinding noise erupted from the rock and it moved several centimeters as a thin gouge appeared on it's surface. The roar quickly faded as a huge cloud of dust billowed up.

"That was impressive." Shino stated, quickly recovering from his shock.

By his own estimation Shino felt that he wouldn't be able to perform Reppushou reliably for another three days. It seemed that for these basic jutsu Shino always needed about four to five days while working for about six hours each day on each jutsu. Seeing the wide jumps in the amount of time it took Naruto to learn each jutsu Shino was deeply puzzled by what he had seen of Naruto's previous performance at the academy. Looking at that full week it took Naruto to learn the Suiton jutsu, it didn't seem possible to reconcile that with what he had seen of his smaller friends performance at the academy. A month ago he would have believed it impossible for Naruto to learn even a low level jutsu in a little less than two days. Seeing the energetic blond learn a mid level jutsu in several hours only added to the mystery that was Uzumaki Naruto.

"It seems that your control has increased dramatically." Shino stated.

"Yeah, it's great isn't it." Naruto smiled broadly.

"Maybe you should attempt the Bunshin no jutsu."

"Right! Bunshin no jutsu!" Naruto roared as his hands flashed and he jumped up.

With a series of bursts of smoke nearly fifty images of Naruto appeared. Naruto had a huge smile on his face but Shino frowned.

"I do not believe any of this is actually helping."

"What! I'm getting great at making these stupid bunshin!"

"Naruto the instructors never ask students to make more than three. I doubt that they would accept you producing fifty bunshin when they ask you for one or two."

Naruto practically deflated at his friends words.

"Sometimes I really hate it when you're right." The blond sighed in resignation.

-ooo-

A week later and Shino's puzzlement greatly increased as he watched Naruto fight with the Raiton jutsu. The change in Naruto between the way he acted at the academy and the way he acted while working on the Raiton jutsu was borderline unsettling. The young blond had a tenacity that was nearly as astounding as his chakra levels. The more Shino watched the more he was convinced that Naruto's chakra was definitely aligned with wind. Even though that would explain the ease Naruto had with the Fuuton jutsu as well as the difficulty he had with the Raiton, it didn't explain the difference between Naruto's success working with Shino after hours compared to his failures working at the academy. Some of it was easily attributed to his massive chakra well and a significant portion of it was definitely due to many of the instructors disdain towards his friend. Those two factors together didn't fully account for the erratic results Shino had seen in Naruto's jutsu performance. It was almost as if Naruto's chakra itself was somehow unstable. Somehow he knew it was due to that odd secondary chakra that his Kikai severely disliked. Shino's eyes widened slightly for what had to be the thirtieth time for the evening that Naruto snarled out the jutsu name and his fingers flashed through the seals. There was a crackle in the air and a few sparks shot out from his friends hands but like the countless times before the jutsu failed. This time though, a blue arc of electricity shot up his arm. This particular failure was rather comical as Naruto's hair stood up on end forming an odd yellow cloud around his head. Naruto himself yelled out in pain and began to furiously rub at his ear that the arc of electrical energy had apparently grounded out to after traveling up his arm strangely enough. Shino didn't believe that would normally happen but the strangest things would happen when Naruto was involved.

A/N: Of the five jutsu here's a list of the three named. I'm holding on to the name of the Raiton jutsu as a surprise for later, I think that will be in chapter 7 or 8, hard to say since the chapters keep getting longer than I originally thought they'd be.

Suiton: Mizurappa

Doton: Doryuu Heki

Fuuton: Reppushou


	5. Chapter 5

**Gifts and Friends: Book One – ch. 5**

A/N: See standard disclaimer at the beginning of ch. 1. As usual please excuse any minor spelling or grammar mistakes.

-ooo-

Jiraiya sighed in contentment as he lay on a beach under a large umbrella with a cold and heavily alcoholic drink by his side. He was just about as far South as one could get on the Western coast of Fire Country. He was an almost literal stones throw from Tea Country at a small coastal tourist town he favored for not just the skimpy bathing suits but also the pleasant weather that this location always seemed to enjoy. The small town, who's name he could never remember, also had quite a thriving trade for various sponges they harvested from the calm waters of the Western Gulf. That also brought a steady stream of women to the various shops looking for good deals on special sponges. A smile was permanently plastered on his face as he watched all of the young women on the beach from behind his sunglasses. He was taking a bit of a break. Even though things had gone quite well with Fukasaku that whole discussion had been very emotionally draining. It also generally took a few days for his stomach to settle down after eating some of Shima's cooking. At least he now had both of the small toad elders solidly on his side and that certainly helped. In fact he was pretty sure that Fukasaku was running a second intelligence operation focused on Naruto in addition to his own. He thought through his inventory of stuff in his possession from Minato and Kushina. If things were going half as well as he thought they were going back home he was going to need a couple of more scrolls shortly. If things went really well old man Sarutobi would be calling him back to Konoha soon. Jiraiya's smile grew somewhat larger, that likely upcoming visit was looking to be his best public visit home in a very long time. At that thought a soft chuckle escaped his lips, yes he was certainly going to enjoy his next visit.

-ooo-

"Hey Ino!" Naruto yelled as he ran up to a small group of girls about to go through the academy gate.

Ino glared at Naruto for a moment and then sighed. He could be ridiculously persistent and she knew that if she blew him off he would simply hound her until she gave in and had to deal with him anyway. Rolling her eyes to her friends she turned and walked over to him as she waved her friends off and they walked through the academy gate without her. Frowning as she saw the sorry state of his clothing she stood before the gate as he ran up to her. It almost looked like he had set set himself on fire.

"What the hell did you do to your clothes?" She asked.

"Um, cooking accident." He muttered causing Ino to narrow her eyes.

"If you say so. What do you want Naruto? We only have a few minutes before we have to be in class." She could easily tell he was lying about his scorched clothing but quickly decided that she really didn't want to know.

"Well, you see, it's like..., um wait, what I mean…" Naruto stammered.

"You're wasting my time Uzumaki."

"I'm sorry." Naruto looked down and for a moment Ino felt a small bit of sympathy towards him as he spoke. "You're good friends with Sakura right?"

"Not so much anymore."

"But you know her better than anyone else right?"

"I guess."

"Do you know how I could get her to like me?"

"What!" Ino exclaimed as her eyes popped open widely.

"Well I really like her and she doesn't seem to like me. Since you're her friend I thought you could help me out. You know, tell me what I'm doing wrong and that type of stuff."

Ino looked at him for a moment, closed her eyes and resisted the urge to laugh. Still if she could help him with this it would remove one of her so called rivals for Sasuke's affections. Not that she really cared about the jerk but it would fit with the way she acted around Sasuke and more importantly Sakura. When she opened her eyes and looked at him again she instantly dropped that idea.

"Forget it." Ino felt a pang of remorse as her words caused most of the bubbling energy in Naruto to vanish.

"Wait, why?"

"She'll never like you the way you want Naruto." Ino said softly.

"What do you mean? Why not?"

"Well first off you are simply too 'you'. You have no idea how annoying you can be. I'm actually surprised she is as nice to you as she is, you really should give the poor girl some time to breathe. The real problem though is that she's completely hung up on Sasuke."

"Too me? She can't breath? Hung up on Sasuke?" Naruto stated quietly, obviously confused.

"We certainly don't have the time to go into your issues. Sasuke now, well we can compare how most of the girls see you and him. Sasuke is the last of a very prestigious clan so he has a tragic history that is very appealing to girls, you aren't. That also implies that he is very wealthy. Sasuke is quiet, aloof and dresses nicely, so not you. Sasuke is the number one student in our class and you are what? Last? Do you really want to continue? We could probably go on for hours." Ino said starting to feel slightly bad as she saw the expression on his face.

"No that's o.k. I get it." Naruto said quietly as he turned away.

Ino felt a very sharp pang of guilt. While she had never warmed up to Naruto before and always tried to avoid him, she didn't really understand the vast animosity so many people showed towards him. Granted he often made her skin crawl with his antics and she was leery of his prankster reputation, she didn't really have any sort of personal reason to violently dislike him the way so many others did.

"Naruto wait."

"Yeah?"

"Don't let it get you down. You're just not her type. Besides you're mostly a nice guy and you certainly 'try' harder than anyone else in class. Sometimes though people don't connect and all the trying in the world won't change that. In fact sometimes the more you try the more you make things worse. It's just the way people are."

"If you say so." Naruto hesitated before smiling slightly. "Thanks Ino, you know hardly anyone is even willing to talk to me at all, now you're one of the best friends I've got. Maybe I should ask you out."

"Yeah right. don't get any ideas, I'm supposed to like Sasuke even more than Sakura." She lightly punched him in the arm.

"You're really great Ino." Naruto flashed her a huge smile before turning around and running off, instantly back to his typical self.

Ino stared after him even though he had quickly disappeared into the academy and couldn't be seen anymore. Inwardly she flinched though as she realized that she had slipped slightly with the very last thing she told him. Hopefully he wouldn't figure out more of her charade regarding Sasuke. It was so hard to tell with Naruto. Sometimes he noticed the damnedest little things and other times the most blatantly obvious things were completely invisible to him.

"Geez, telling him a few nice things and now I'm one of his best friends? That kid has some serious issues." Ino said softly to herself as she began to seriously wonder about Naruto for the first time.

Before she could take one step further she felt a soft mental tug. Her eyes widened as she looked up to see her father staring at her from up the block. An instant later he was standing next to her as he effortlessly shunshinned across the distance between them.

"Ino-chan." He said softly.

"Daddy?"

"Ino..." Inoichi paused as he looked to the academy doors for a moment. "You know Uzumaki?"

"Well yeah, he's a classmate, it's kind of hard not to."

"You must be very careful around him."

"Naruto? You're kidding right? He's like the biggest goof in the whole academy."

"Ino I am serious."

"Wait. Is this about why all of you adults can't stand him?"

"Ino I am not allowed to explain that."

"What! I don't believe this."

"I would like you to stay away from him but the really important thing for you is you must never use Shintenshin on him. Especially now that you can get it to work reliably on someone outside of the clan."

"Naruto? Is there some sort of danger from using it on dopey idiots?" Ino asked sarcastically.

"Ino...I already told you that I am not allowed to explain but you must not use Shintenshin on him. Ever. Staying away from him would just make your old man feel more at ease."

"Well we are not going to get into the whole 'You Do Not Choose My Friends' argument even if calling Naruto a friend is a bit of a stretch."

"Listen, to be honest I really don't have any personal problem with the boy himself and I have little problem with you being his friend. Well other than typical fatherly misgivings over their daughters being friends with any boy. This has nothing to do with your personal life. This has to do with you being a Yamanaka and more importantly a Yamanaka Shinobi. You. Must. Never. Use. Shintenshin on Naruto. There is a chance that it could possibly be extremely dangerous for you. Please do not ask me for any more details. Just keep in mind that I am only trying to protect you."

Ino looked intently at her father and was shocked to see a soft sadness fighting with a desperate pleading in his eyes. She nodded slightly and he gave her a tentative smile before vanishing in a quiet swirl of leaves. She quickly shook off her confusion from the odd conversation and heading into the academy. She did spend the rest of the day stealing brief puzzled looks at Naruto. During lunch she found herself studying Naruto and Shino as they sat together going over a scroll while talking quietly to each other. Although Shino made her uneasy for some reason that she couldn't explain she decided that he probably knew Naruto best and she was going to talk to him about this.

-ooo-

Later that day, after classes she causally followed Shino to the training grounds. She had been tempted to follow Naruto instead but the orange headache had quickly vanished after talking to Shino for a moment at the academy gate. Besides she wanted to talk to Shino before talking to Naruto again. She was slightly puzzled that her classmate would head off for additional training immediately after classes. She hung back as he entered one of the few areas available to academy students. She was unsure of exactly how to approach him and as she looked on he sat down and began studying a scroll. While never saying much of anything towards any of her other classmates other than Naruto, Shino still managed to maintain an odd sort of 'don't bother me' air about him. Just as she decided to simply barge in and start talking to him she heard Naruto approaching. She was surprised to see him carrying a take out box from a food stand and she was even more surprised to see Shino smile at the sight of Naruto. She quickly pulled out a few kunai and went over to the practice targets. She began tossing the knives, periodically walking over to retrieve them but her attention stayed locked on her two classmates. A few moments later the two boys were both sitting, each eating a bowl of Ramen. They both glanced over to her a few times but neither said anything and despite this being her first time there it really wasn't too unusual for academy students to use these grounds.

Her observations came to a sudden halt though as the two boys finished their quick meal and moved off deeper into the training area and out of her sight.

She growled to herself in frustration but quickly decided that she would try to sneak up on the two of them. She really didn't think she'd succeed though. Throughout her years at the academy any time they had any sort of tracking type of exercise she had discovered that both Naruto and Shino were very hard to sneak up on. Shino was typically more difficult than Naruto and she didn't think her chances were good but she was damn well going to try anyway. She suppressed her chakra and slowly began to crawl over to the brush line that was hiding her two targets. She especially took extreme care not to make any sound since she was reasonably certain that Naruto's seemingly very sharp hearing was what made him so difficult to track without being found out. Shino though was still a mystery as to how he always seemed to know who was near him. There were times that she was certain he was hiding Hyuuga eyes behind those sunglasses.

Just as she was about the reach the brush line a small section right in front of her shimmered a bit and she suddenly found herself face to face with the oddest toad.

"Trying to sneak up on the boys?" The amphibian asked in a quiet voice.

Ino came to a standstill there, slightly stunned at the sight of the green toad with it's long white eyebrows, a small white beard on its chin and a tuft of white hair on its head. It had dark rings around its bright yellow eyes that seemed to be dancing in silent laughter at her expense. It was also wearing a dark gray cloak and was holding onto the cutest little walking stick. Ino nodded her head and whispered.

"Yeah. You too?"

"Just checking up on them, name's Fukasaku but you can call me Pa. You might have crawled right on top of me in another moment but more importantly the Aburame's Kikai would have sensed you if you had gone forward another meter or so."

"Kikai? Oh, I'm Ino."

"Don't know about the Kikai? No matter, I'll cover you. Sage Art: Cloak of the leaves." Fukasaku whispered as he formed several odd hand seals with his flippers and then touched the top of Ino's hand.

Ino felt a very strange and very soft chakra wash over her with whatever jutsu the toad used. It was so light that she was certain that if Fukasaku hadn't of touched her she would have never felt the jutsu despite being right on top of the old toad. She noticed that their surroundings had taken on an odd shimmer and yet despite that the color of the entire world seemed have faded, leaving everything looking rather gray.

"Wow. They can't see us at all now?" Ino whispered very quietly.

"Not any more than you were able to see me before you almost stepped on me. A really good Hyuuga with their Byakugan active can sometimes see through the cloak but not always." Fukasaku chuckled softly.

The young girl and old toad inched forward slowly and quietly until they were able to clearly see Naruto and Shino standing at the edge of a large lake that bordered this particular training field. At first the two boys simply talked between themselves but Naruto suddenly nodded, practically leaped into the air and a moment later Ino felt one of those huge rushes of chakra that Naruto typically spouted off before he screwed up a jutsu. She wasn't overly skilled at chakra sensing skills but anyone with even the slimmest sliver of ability to sense others chakra could feel the stuff almost literally pour off of Naruto sometimes. Ino gasped softly this time though as a huge ball of fire suddenly erupted into existence in front of Naruto immediately after she heard him call out 'Katon: Endan'.

"Son of a bitch." She whispered.

"Heh, yeah that kid is pretty weird. He still can't do a bunshin to save his life but _that_ he can pull off." Fukasaku replied.

"I can't believe these two are learning jutsu like this on their own." Ino muttered softly.

A moment later a second but somewhat smaller ball of fire roared into existence, this new one in front of Shino. Fukasaku suddenly frowned as he felt an odd tingle.

"Looks like I'm going to have to ditch you girl. Ma is calling me home for dinner it seems. See you later." The toad gave Ino a mischievous smile before he disappeared, leaving a bit of smoke behind.

Ino at first looked around wildly for the toad and then frowned as she felt that odd jutsu that had been hiding her fade away and disappear much like the toad had.

"Shit! That little bastard." She growled out as she seemed to fade into reality less than five meters behind of Shino and Naruto, causing both to spin around.

"Ino? What are you doing here?" A puzzled Naruto asked while a slightly confused and irritated Shino looked on.

"Looking to see what you two are up to duh. You are so teaching me that jutsu!" The young girl exclaimed.

"Yamanaka-san this particular jutsu is very chakra intensive. I am barely able to initiate it, although that is not a problem for Naruto. I am extremely curious as to exactly how you managed to get as close to us as you did."

"Are you saying I can't do it?" Ino demanded, her irritation became obvious as she ignored Shino's question.

"Possibly. I believe this particular jutsu is beyond the chakra capabilities of most recently graduated Genin and certainly beyond the chakra capabilities of just about all academy students. Naruto has a...strange problem of having too much chakra and my own reserves have grown greatly these past two months."

"Don't care. You two are still teaching that to me!" Ino demanded, causing Shino to sigh softly.

"Seriously Ino, how'd you sneak up on us? You've never been able to get that close to me ever before and you certainly have never gotten anywhere near that close to Shino." Naruto asked.

"You guys are probably not going to believe me but I kind of ran into a strange and really old toad just now. He was watching you guys himself and he covered us with some weird jutsu that let both of us sneak right up to the two of you."

"A really old toad?" Naruto asked.

"Yeah! I think he had to be like a hundred years old or more! He actually had white hair! I've never heard of a toad with hair." Ino exclaimed.

"Interesting. It seems you have now attracted the attention of an elder toad." Shino stated to Naruto.

"He said that his name was Fukasaku but that I should call him Pa. I'm telling you it was pretty weird."

"Fukasaku!" Shino exclaimed, causing both Ino and Naruto to jump.

"What the hell Shino!" Naruto demanded.

"My apologies, that name surprised me greatly. Fukasaku is one of the eldest toads. My clans intelligence files regarding the toads have appearances of him going back nearly four hundred years."

"Wow! That's pretty cool." Naruto exclaimed.

"I guess he was even older than I thought. I don't understand why would the Toad Clan be watching you guys though." Ino muttered.

"They are not watching _us_ so much. They are pretty much focused completely on Naruto for some reason." Shino answered.

"Really? Do you guys have any idea why?"

"We have discussed various possibilities but we do not feel that we have enough information to make a reliable assessment of the situation."

"So let me get this straight, not only is there seemingly some grand conspiracy among the adults that pertains to Naruto of all people but he's got the Toad Clan watching him? Are you guys going to next tell me that Naruto really is close friends with the Sandaime Hokage?"  
>"Funny you should mention the old man." Naruto said as his cheeks took on a pinkish color and he began to rub the back of his head.<p>

"Did not Iruka-sensei tell you numerous times to stop calling the Hokage 'old man'?" Shino said as he rolled his eyes.

"No way! I never really believed that!" Ino practically yelled.

"He's always checked up on me for as long as I can remember."

"You have also noticed the hostility the adults show towards Naruto?"

"Well yeah, kind of hard to miss, especially for a Yamanaka. We study a lot of psychology and have to learn a lot of people watching skills. Although my dad told me that he doesn't have a problem with you he was concerned that I could get hurt using one of our family jutsu on you. Since he wasn't going to be answering any questions I figured that I would ask you Shino since you and Naruto have gotten pretty close. Seems things about Naruto are even stranger than I thought. Now about that jutsu!"

"Well the Hokage did say that he was going to tell me the secret when I was older so that's good enough for me. We've been trying to figure out what's going on with the toads but the best we could come up with is that I might have some weird blood line limit and that they may be scouting me out to sign their contract."

"Really? That sounds pretty cool. What makes you guys think that Naruto here has a blood limit?" Ino asked them both although she was looking at Shino.

"It is mostly due to his astonishing chakra levels, they currently exceed that of most Jounin." Shino answered.

"No way! I guess that explains why he's able to pull off such a large fireball. You two are still going to teach it to me!" Ino demanded.

The three spent the next couple of hours going over the Katon jutsu. Ino was able to memorize the hand seals quickly with ease but she didn't have any noticeable success getting her chakra to mold into the proper pattern to charge the seals and initiate the jutsu. During that time both Shino and Naruto were able to fire off numerous fireballs out onto the lake. Shino stopped after doing another half dozen as he felt his chakra reserves dwindle. Naruto though had created eighteen of the giant spheres of flame before he called it quits for the day. Shino was certain that his friend had used up a significantly larger amount of chakra for each fireball but despite also doing three times as many using much more chakra for each, Naruto was showing no signs of chakra depletion.

Ino bore an expression of irritation each time one of the boys went through the jutsu but she wasn't going to give up on this. As the daylight dwindled the three said their goodbyes and each headed off in their separate ways. The two boys not completely understanding that their after hours jutsu work had just expanded with the addition of a third person.

-ooo-

"So that's it. I've pretty much gotten a solid handle on all five, even that damn Raiton jutsu and none of them seem to be helping." Naruto stated.

"Yes, we do not seem to be accomplishing our goal with this endeavor. With your current level of chakra control your chakra reserves seem to recover quicker than the amount of time it takes you to successfully complete any of these jutsu."

"That doesn't seem to make any sense."

"It should not happen but you seem to somehow reabsorb some of the chakra you waste with every jutsu that you attempt when it does not work properly. Which by the way is extremely unusual on its own. If it is not that, then your chakra recovery time is simply on the verge of being inhuman. I would like to believe that you may in fact have some sort of bloodline limit but that does not effectively match the currently available data we have about your secrets. At least we have discovered that your chakra is aligned with wind. That doesn't help us much since wind is possibly the most uncommon alignment in Konoha so we likely won't be able to find many wind jutsu for you to learn. At least none that will help with our endeavor that any of the likely adults we could ask would be willing to give to you. The potential for destruction a high level Fuuton jutsu, coupled with your chakra levels would prevent any sympathetic adult to reconsider providing us with such a jutsu. Another odd thing about you is that at most times your chakra is aligned with wind and on rare occasions it is definitely not. That apparent instability of your chakra could be another indicator that you may have a blood line limit. It is a shame that we know nothing of your family. Granted there's also a chance that if your problems are due to some sort of blood limit it could be a new one that you are the first to have. While interesting none of that helps you in your current situation."

"So, tags then?" Naruto said with a sly smile.

"I guess it will be tags after all." Shino said with a sigh of resignation.

Shino pulled out the other scroll his father had lent them, unrolled it and began to read.

"Well what do we do first?" Naruto asked as he began to fidget.

"First we have to practice our hand writing, you especially. This is not something that sloppy writing skills is conducive towards."

"What?" Naruto looked baffled.

"If you mess up the characters when you create a tag it could easily blow up in your face when you charge it." Shino stated with a sigh.

"Well why didn't you say so in the first place? What else are we going to need after that?"

"We are going to need paper, brushes, ink and some of our blood." Shino stated calmly.

"Our blood?" Naruto asked obviously puzzled.

"It gets mixed with the ink so that the ink can more easily store chakra. Most inks by themselves are poor storage vessels for chakra."

Naruto looked confused for a moment as he scrunched his eyes closed and thought about what Shino had said.

"Oh! I get it now!" Naruto beamed.

"The other option would be to buy 'chakra ink' but that is very expensive."

"Chakra ink?"

"Yes there is both 'chakra ink' and 'chakra paper'. There are special farms where chakra is pushed into trees and berry bushes. Paper made from those trees can readily absorb chakra as can ink made from those berry bushes. Some types of chakra paper can actually be used for tags but it is much more reactive than normal paper. For us it would most likely be a waste of money to use that kind of paper at this time. The ink on the other hand also isn't a good an option for us since it allows a shinobi to use slightly less chakra when making tags. Another thing to consider is that such ink is prohibitively expensive. Since we'll be adding our own blood to some regular ink any tags we make should tend to be a bit more stable when we use our chakra. Prior to any of that though, we really should practice the characters."

Shino unrolled the scroll and studied the first section while Naruto began to fidget. Naruto was barely able to contain himself as Shino read.

"Can't we just try one? Please?" Naruto looked up to Shino with wide eyes.

"I can see we simply are not going to be able to properly do this with the way you are, so we may as well attempt to make a basic tag." Shino rolled his eyes.

A quick trip back to the village proper equipped them with the supplies they needed. Naruto looked eagerly at the small stack of paper, a few brushes and half dozen small bottles of ink along with a half dozen empty bottles.

"First thing we have to do is add some blood to the ink. According to the scroll that is the first of three chakra components necessary for creating tags. I think we should start out with a mixture that contains approximately twenty five percent blood. That should be more than enough blood to allow the ink to more readily hold chakra. It's also the recommended ratio to start with."

Shino quickly nicked his thumb and squeezed it slightly to help the blood flow. Once the small bottle was about a quarter full he put it down. Grabbing a small bandage he quickly wrapped up his thumb, his eyes never leaving the small bottle that now held a bit of his blood. A moment later he began pouring ink from another larger bottle into the small bottle containing his blood until it was full. He then shook the small bottle vigorously for a few moments. Shino took the small bottle into his hands and began channeling chakra into the ink and blood mixture. He felt a slight drain but nothing significant. It didn't take long before the ink felt 'full' and he peered into the dark fluid where he could now see a faint shimmer within the glass. He felt a spike of chakra and looked up in surprise to see the small bottle of ink that Naruto was holding start to glow. Before he could say anything to stop his energetic friend the bottle exploded showering Naruto with ink and bits of glass. Luckily the minor explosion didn't send the debris very far and even better Naruto was facing mostly away from his friend so Shino didn't get hit with any ink or glass. Naruto looked up wide eyed at Shino.

"Less chakra?" The blond asked sheepishly.

"Less chakra, much less chakra. Perhaps less blood as well. Although in your case more blood might be a better option. You should try both." Shino answered as he looked at the bottles thoughtfully.

Naruto nodded as he quickly cleaned off his hands and face with a small towel Shino had brought. He grimaced at the mess on his jacket but decided to ignore it. He then picked up one of the empty bottles, sliced open the base of his left palm roughly between his thumb and wrist. Shino looked on surprised at how deeply Naruto had cut himself. He hadn't been paying attention earlier, simply assuming that Naruto had sliced a small narrow cut into his thumb much like the one he had done to himself. He stole a quick glance at the small self adhesive bandage on his thumb and didn't see one on Naruto. As Shino watched Naruto filled the bottom third of one bottle with bright red blood before quickly grabbing another and filling less than an eighth of that one with his blood. Naruto put the second bottle down and without looking at the cut in his hand he simply pressed his palms together at about ninety degrees from each other. Shino did note that Naruto's eyes never left the bottles. After a moment he released his hands and picked up the bottle with more blood in it. Shino's eyes widened as he saw that the slice in Naruto's palm was noticeably smaller and not bleeding. There was no scabbing and he wasn't sure but there may have been a small wisp of smoke rise out of the open skin.

"Do you think these will be good?" Naruto asked shaking Shino from his observations.

"One of them should work. Actually both may work well. I suspect even your first mixture would have worked well if you had not over charged it with chakra. It is possible to draw seals using nothing but blood and also nothing but ink. Adding the two together is a compromise. Pure blood seals can dry out to the point where they begin to flake off of whatever paper they were written in. That can be disastrous for explosive tags. Although I believe this method of sealing counters that. Pure ink seals on the other hand have a harder time containing any sort of chakra structure and therefore are not as reliable."

Shino could almost hear his friends eyes begin to glaze over and he stifled one of his many Naruto induced sighs. Naruto began to smile though as he unstopped an ink bottle and poured enough ink into each of the bottles that held some of his blood to completely fill them. He then proceeded to vigorously shake the bottles to thoroughly mix the ink and blood together. With a look of intense concentration he placed one down and began to pour chakra into the bottle he was holding. This time he managed to fully charge the blood laced ink without inducing either of the bottles to explode.

"Now one of the real tricks to this particular type of sealing is that we have to channel chakra through the brush as we are inscribing the characters for the sealing array. That is the second chakra component to this branch of sealing. You should take care not to channel too much as it would likely ignite the paper you are working on." Shino stated as he dipped his brush into the bottle of chakra laced ink and blood.

The two spent the next couple of hours carefully inscribing what was supposed to be a 'simple' explosive note. Shino was certainly feeling the drain on his chakra from not only charging the ink but also from the continuous draw as he drew out the array. Once they were both complete they gave the ink a few minutes to set.

"The third and final of the large chakra components is to now charge the prepared array. If we have done everything correctly we should now have to basic explosive tags."

Naruto nodded and the both of them placed their hands upon their tags and poured a large amount of chakra into the ink laden paper. Shino was feeling a significant drain and felt that he hadn't managed to completely charge his tag. Naruto was nervous, he had managed to charge his tag without having it blow up in his face so at least he was sure he hadn't over charged it. A few moments later the boys had plastered their tags onto a large rock in the training area, charged the trigger sequence and ran like hell away from the tags. As they turned back to see if anything was going to happen they noticed that smoke began to pour off of both tags and then each of them erupted into very short lived and obvious very weak flames.

"Damn. I guess we've still got a lot of work ahead of us." Naruto said in a very disappointed voice.

"Indeed. Perhaps we should take the rest of the day off." Shino replied with just as much disappointment.

"Yeah. This whole thing has been pretty frustrating."

The two nodded to each other and each of them quietly headed to their homes.

-ooo-

Naruto gave the scroll on final look before rolling it up and stuffing it back inside his jacket. He smiled as he thought back to his promise to the strange guy with glasses. That guy was right about needing to know Kawarimi first it seemed. Naruto had been doing that jutsu with a one hundred percent success rate for a few weeks now. Ever since he got that damn Raiton jutsu down to working better than half the time the Kawarimi seemed easy. Today though, today was time for something new. He felt that after the earlier disappointment with his first explosive tag he needed the confidence boost of learning a new jutsu. He felt that he had met the requirements for his promise to the strange man and now he was going to attempt his very first Shunshin. The basic version was pretty much a line of sight high speed transportation jutsu. Although the scroll did say that with practice you could go around corners and direct the jutsu with far more accuracy once he became skilled with it's use.

Naruto stepped out of one of the windows of his sleeping area and out onto the odd little balcony his apartment had, where he hopped up onto the railing. He took a deep breath and slowly released it. For a moment he felt slightly guilty about not including Shino in learning this jutsu but he really wanted to surprise his friend. He went through the hand seals that he had memorized over the past few weeks, molding his chakra the way the scroll described. He felt the hand seals further shape the chakra. His eyes locked onto the point several roofs over that he had chosen for his target arrival point and he released the jutsu. Everything around him seemed to come to a standstill for a brief moment and the world blurred. There was a brief almost whistling sound of air rushing by before a flare of intense pain followed immediately by blackness.

-ooo-

Elsewhere in Konoha an alarm sounded. One of three individuals looked from the translucent sphere sitting in a large deep bowl over a pool of water up to the lounge area where the intercept team suddenly jumped up from their seats.

"Something or someone just flew through the barrier, exiting the village. 21 degrees to the East of the South gate. Looks like it either just skimmed over the top of the wall or it possibly clipped the wall. A direct line trajectory places its landing about 24 meters from the tree line into the forest from where it passed the wall."

The five members of the interception team all nodded and promptly vanished. They were outside and flitting from roof to roof before the detection team was able to send out the general alert to the rest of the Konoha forces. In seconds the team was standing on the wall staring at a relatively small missing section of the parapet. They only gave it a second or so appraisal before leaping off the wall, across the Wall Field and into the forest. At almost exactly 24 meters past the tree line they found a large gouge in the forest floor that had thrown up a decent amount of dirt. About six meters from the initial impact area they saw some bright orange cloth. Further examination showed them that it was none other than Uzumaki Naruto, unconscious with his right leg going off at an odd angle at roughly the half way point between his knee and his ankle.

"Shit. The Hokage isn't going to like this." One of the team muttered.

The Hyuuga of the team shook his head and pulled out his walkie talkie.

"Cancel the rest of the response teams but send out a medic team to our location. Looks like Uzumaki was messing around with some jutsu or something and launched himself across the village. He's got a visibly broken leg and is unconscious but breathing. There doesn't appear to be any internal bleeding or any other readily discernible damage."

"How much do you want to bet that if we line up his landing with that hole in the top of the wall that it winds up at his apartment?"

-ooo-

Sarutobi grimaced slightly as he entered Naruto's hospital room, he really disliked seeing anyone he cared for in this place. The old Hokage was shocked to see Naruto scribbling in a small notebook while poring through a scroll.

"So you had a bit of a mishap I hear?" Sarutobi asked.

"Hey Old Man! Heh, heh, yeah kind of. Sorry about the wall. I really had no idea that jutsu would send me so far. One of these days I'm going to get a handle on this massive amount of chakra I've got." Naruto replied in his typical enthusiastic manner.

"So I take it that you're working on chakra control there?"

"I guess you could say that. Shino and I have been trying for like months to get a handle on my problem and right now we're working on sealing. It's supposed to be wildly chakra intensive but we didn't have much luck with our first attempt."

"Well I'm sure that you'll get there. After all your father was pretty good with seals. I'm sure he would have liked to see you learning about them."

"My dad worked with seals like my mom?" Naruto said quietly as he completely forgot about his notes.

"Well I guess you could say that they complemented each other nicely. Although I think that was one area where they would argue more than any other. Sealing is a very contradictory subject for most people. Now I've probably told you too much. I'm really sorry Naruto but you're simply going to have to wait until you become a Jounin before you find out everything."

"That's o.k. I understand. Well kind of anyway." Naruto stated quietly as he looked down at the floor.

"Trust me, it will someday make sense. I only hope you can forgive me about all the secrets."

"Bah, don't worry about that Old Man. I trust you. If you say it has to be that way then I'm not going to give you a hard time about it. Well not much anyway. Besides who else ever visits me whenever I wind up in this place?" Naruto laughed, causing the Hokage to smile in return.

There was a knock on the door frame causing both Sarutobi and Naruto to look up. Standing in the doorway was Iruka, Shino and strangely enough Ino. Naruto's face shifted from a shocked smile over into a huge grin as he noticed that Iruka was holding a take out box from Ichiraku.

-ooo-

A/N: As hinted in this chapter Ino is going to be rather A/U. I'm going to try to keep as much of her personality as I see it but definitely ditching the whole 'Sasuke Fangirl' aspects. One of the attractive things about Ino is that there really isn't much there which means plenty of wiggle room to develop her in stories. I'm actually rather surprised that I haven't used her more (or really at all) in other stories. For this one the only choices would be Ino and Tenten. While I could have worked Tenten into the story instead of Ino, I felt it would have been too forced at this point. Using one of his classmates makes for a much better flow in my opinion. Which basically leaves Ino or Sakura or Hinata. Both Sakura and Hinata have other things to do in this story later on. Granted I don't see Ino taking a much more of the chapters later on than she does here. Next chapter is currently slightly over 3,000 words. Hoping to finish it in about a week but it might take two or three. That one should be the last of the academy year.

Canon jutsu added to Naruto's arsenal

Katon: Endan

Shunshin, well sort of, hahaha. Don't worry he'll have it down by chapter 8 I think, lol.


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: My deep and sincere apologies. I can't believe it's been over a year and a half since I last updated this story. I really had about 95% of this chapter written for most of that time but just couldn't quite get the beginning to work in an acceptable fashion. I wound up chopping out the stuff that I just couldn't get to flow right. Hopefully the spelling and grammar errors aren't too bad. I glanced it over and ran it through the spell check with my highly Naruto customized dictionary but I spotted a few issues with some words being capitalized in one sentence and not in others that I couldn't find later. Also have a few other Naruto specific spellings that shift from one popular version to another as the chapter goes.

"Ah Jiraiya, good to see you." Sarutobi said as his former student entered his office.

"What's up Hiruzen? Enjoy my last book eh?" Jiraiya said with a sly smile.

"Ah, well, hmm...it was very... good." The Hokage fidgeted as Jiraiya's smile grew. "Seriously though, I'm afraid I may have made a bit of a mistake with Naruto."

"Oh Really? You don't say." Jiraiya's voice suddenly became very cold.

"Please don't give me any grief over my decision for you to stay away from him."

"I should give you a hell of a lot more than simply grief Sarutobi." Jiraiya said even more coldly than his previous tone as his eyes grew hard towards his former sensei and all traces of the warm friendliness of a moment ago vanished.

There was a short strained silence between them before Sarutobi sighed.

"This is recent. I discovered that Naruto and one of his classmates were attempting to create explosive tags a few days ago. I'm a little uncomfortable with the idea of him attempting to teach himself any sort of sealing techniques. It also seems that he got his hands on a jutsu scroll for Shunshin, which inadvertently landed him in the hospital. When I visited him I said something I should not have that will likely only encourage him to further his exploration of seals."

"Well I can see how you would be unsettled by him trying to teach himself about seals with his situation but what could you have said that would encourage him?"

"Well I mentioned that his father was pretty good with seals."

"Pretty good?" Jiraiya exclaimed as the volume of his voice increased. "Pretty good he says! My best student and quite possibly the greatest seal master to ever exist is just 'pretty good'. Nobody was as good as Minato, even I don't match his skills. The only one who came close was the Second Hokage."

"Jiraiya! He must not know about his father at this time! If that knowledge leaked out we would never be able to protect him. Especially if Iwa decides to go to war with us over his existence."

"I could protect him! And you know it! Besides you're the one who screwed up here! You also know that Iwa wouldn't dare start anything with us now. Especially with that runt Oonoki still running things, he just isn't that stupid." Jiraiya snarled.

"I will not argue about that anymore, the matter is closed, my decision is final. I just want you to check on him and try to make sure he isn't learning anything that will endanger the seal containing the Kyuubi.

Jiraiya glared at his old teacher silently for a few moments before nodding.

-ooo-

Jiraiya and Sarutobi entered the small clearing where Shino and Naruto were working on the latest batch of their experimental explosive tags. The two looked up and grew wide eyed at the sight of the Hokage. Although with Shino the only sign was his eyebrows raising slightly so their upper edges became just barely more visible over his sunglasses. Shino quickly stood and gave both men a deep bow. Naruto looked puzzled by Shino's actions but decided to stand himself and mimic his friends bow.

"Ah, good to find the two of you working on this and it's nice to see you out of the hospital already Naruto." The Hokage called out with a happy tone to his voice

Shino glanced over to his friend, still amazed that Naruto's leg was already healed. He then stole a glance to the tall white haired man who had walked up next to the Hokage and was shocked to realize that it was none other than Lord Jiraiya. Lord Jiraiya... 'The Toad hermit'. Shino's gaze shifted back to Naruto. This was a conversation that he would be listening to most intently.

"So, Naruto and Shino is it? I hear from old Sarutobi here that you two have become very interested in sealing. Seems that the Hokage here is a bit concerned that you might blow yourself up or something." Jiraiya stated as he pointed to Naruto.

"Hey! Old Man! I'm not that bad!" Naruto protested.

"That is not an entirely accurate assessment of your sealing skills." Shino stated.

"Hey! You're supposed to be my friend!"

"That is true but you have also pretty much 'blown yourself up' several times."

"You're just worried about losing some beetles."

Jiraiya and Sarutobi both smiled at the banter between the two boys. It was easy to tell by their small smiles that they considered their comments nothing more than friendly teasing.

"So kid, the Old Man hear tells me that you taken up an interest in sealing." Jiraiya said with a chuckle.

"SEE! I'm not the only one who calls him 'Old Man'!" Naruto turned to Shino triumphantly.

"Naruto! Lord Jiraiya himself should not be so familiar, especially around academy students." Sarutobi glared at Jiraiya after his reprimand of Naruto.

Jiraiya spent the next half hour looking over the sealing work of Naruto and even some of the stuff Shino had done. The young Aburame did not have the same enthusiasm for the subject that the bubbling Naruto did so Jiraiya spent a bit more time with the blond boy. In short order though Jiraiya sensed that Sarutobi was getting slightly nervous about the amount of time they were spending with the boys. Granted he was certain that very few others would have picked up on that. With a quick good bye along with an admonishment for Naruto to improve his hand writing the two older men left the young boys and headed back to the Tower.

"Stop worrying so much. Minato locked that seal up insanely well. I told you a decade ago that he put in some security features that even I can't completely see. There's really no way for Naruto to screw that seal up by learning sealing himself. Pretty sure that he could release the damn thing if he really wants to but he wouldn't need any sealing skill for that. Every Jinchuuriki I've ever encountered or read about could do that so it's a non-issue here." Jiraiya stated to Hiruzen who still looked a bit worried.

"I'm not the only one who would be especially interested if the boy gains some skill in sealing."

"Probably not but I doubt that is going to matter. Listen I'm starving so I'm going to get something to eat before I leave. Did you want to join me?"

"I'm sorry Jiraiya but I've got too much to do here and have lost too much time today as it is."

"As you wish then. You will let me know if anything comes up with the kid though."

"I'll make sure to be more attentive from now on."

"Thank you Sensei." Jiraiya replied with a quick bow and nod before he disappeared in a swirl of leaves, leaving the Hokage to sigh.

Jiraiya had left the Hokage a couple of hours earlier, as he walked down the street he turned a corner with a smile on his face and a full stomach, he felt that it had been a good day. Overall it had gone rather well, although he was somewhat embarrassed to find out that the scroll he had given to Naruto had caused the boy to wind up in the hospital. Well at least nobody could prove that he was responsible for that. He thought with a slight nervous chuckle, thinking how Kushina would have reacted. As he turned a corner he almost walked into a rather annoyed looking chuunin. The scar across the young mans nose was a dead give away to the young mans identity.

"Umino-san? How can I help you?" Jiraiya asked throwing up as innocent an expression as he possibly could.

"Cut the crap Lord Jiraiya. You're the one feeding advanced jutsu to Naruto aren't you?" Iruka demanded.

"Advanced? You're kidding right? Most of that stuff was 'C' rank and the highest was a 'B' rank defensive jutsu. The only thing they all have in common is that none of them are sensitive to large amounts of chakra."

"Somehow I just knew that Aburame Shibi didn't simply have a jutsu scroll that seemed tailor made for Naruto lying around."

"Crap." Jiraiya muttered just loud enough for Iruka to hear while smiling to himself, it was time to bring Iruka into the fold so to speak.

"I will admit they're nearly perfect for someone like Naruto but he practically got himself killed with a Shunshin, a simple 'D' rank ninjutsu!"

"Listen, I'm heading over to his place now to talk to him a little more about sealing. Why don't you join me?"

Iruka seemed a bit surprised at both the statement and invitation but only hesitated for a moment as the surprise faded before he agreed with a silent nod.

In a short time the two men were standing outside of Naruto's apartment as Jiraiya knocked on the door.

A rather disheveled looking Naruto answered the door.

"Iruka-sensei? Umm.."

"Lord Jiraiya." Iruka filled in Naruto's pause, earning a smile of gratitude from Naruto and a snort of amusement from Jiraiya.

"Your sensei here seems a bit worried about you. Something about a recent trip to the hospital?"

"Aww man, not again! I said like a million times already that I'm fine Iruka-sensei!"

"Now Naruto, you know that I worry about you." Iruka said as he reached out and ruffled Narutos hair.

"O.k. kid I've got a few things for you. Try not to talk too much about them to anyone. Although I guess it might be a good idea for you to talk to that Aburame kid and Iruka here about them if they give you trouble."

At that Jiraiya reached into his jacket and pulled out several small scrolls.

"Some really awesome jutsu?" Naruto nearly shouted as his eyes lit up.

"Sorry no. Well one of them is an odd jutsu that I think is really damn useful. It's a Fuinjutsu scanning jutsu. It'll let you see an unlocked seal in it's uncompressed state. Comes in ridiculously handy when trying to figure out seals that you've never seen before or ones you don't have any documentation on. The others used to belong to your parents."

"My parents?" Narutos voice dropped to a whisper.

"Yeah, the Old Man wouldn't be at all happy with me if he found out, so like I just said try not to talk about them. There aren't too many seal masters out there and I worked with your parents quite a few times on sealing, taught your dad a number of things too. Now I'm under orders not to tell you any more about your parents kid but if you're going to be studying sealing I thought I should give them to you. Kind of like giving them back to their proper family." Jiraiya paused for a moment as he took in the oddly sad yet determined expression on Narutos face.

"Are you sure about this Lord Jiraiya?" Iruka said with a smirk directed to Naruto.

"Iruka-sensei!"

"Yeah, I think it's a good idea for him to have them. Now kid, these blue ones were written by your mom. The lighter colored one is an introduction to storage seals and the darker one is about storing chakra, it's a bit trickier than the first one, so make sure you learn the lighter one first. These two gray ones were written by your dad. Just like your moms, the lighter one is the easier of the two. It's about setting up chakra buffers inside of seals and the darker scroll is an introduction on how to link seals."

"What's a chakra buffer?" Naruto asked as his eyes scrunched up, obviously puzzled.

"Hmm, well it's kind of like an expandable bottle with a fixed opening for chakra. Some things are rather sensitive to the amount of chakra and you need a buffer to make them work by releasing a specific amount of chakra and expanding if needed to in order to store any excess chakra coming from where it is stored instead of letting all of it into the seal doing the work. See, all four of these scrolls go together. First you have to learn how to create storage scrolls, then you learn how to set them up to store chakra in them, then you learn how to link those seals to seals that use the chakra and finally you learn to use the buffer so the seals aren't destroyed by being flooded with too much chakra. It would seem that you should learn to make buffers before links but buffers are a lot trickier than linking seals. Stuff like explosive tags do most of that all at once but they're relatively simple and they're supposed to blow up. Most of the more complex seals need all this stuff to be much stronger, so it's a very good idea to know how to do all of it separately and tie them together. Do you have any seals that you've done?"

"Oh Yeah! Check this out!" Naruto pulled out a scroll while shaking slightly with excitement.

Jiraiya took the scroll from Naruto with a rather bemused smile on his face as he unrolled it. He gave it a quick glance over before looking back to Naruto.

"Looks like you copied one of your mom's sealing scrolls. I bet you're having trouble getting it to work though."

"Yeah, how did you know?"

"Your handwriting is horrible, just like I told you earlier. If you're going to be serious about sealing you had better clean that up. Neat handwriting helps a lot. I mean sure you can have the odd character from time to time and there's high order sealing scripts that look like nothing you've probably seen yet but this is a mess. You had better add in some practice time and clean this up a bit. Still you've got the basic structure down rather well it seems. I probably should have stressed that more when we were talking with the Old Man earlier. All in all though, it's really not a bad start, pretty much on par with what your dad was like when he first started if I remember right. I think though that we've covered enough and I really don't want to melt your brain or something if I give you any more to think about." Jiraiya stated with a chuckle.

"Hey!"

"I really have to get going, got mission type stuff out of the village. I'm sure you understand." Jiraiya said to Naruto in a low voice along with a wink.

Naruto nodded intently, feeling more like a real ninja simply talking to the strange older man.

"Now I'm going to expect to see your reports become easier to read Naruto." Iruka stated with a smile.

"I'll try Iruka-sensei!"

"O.K. That's a relief to hear, I'm going to head out with Lord Jiraiya. I'll see you in class in the morning."

Naruto nodded again. His attention already focusing back to the scrolls Jiraiya had given him that he barely noticed the two men leave his apartment.

"So exactly what is your interest in Naruto?" Iruka asked quietly as they walked away from the boys apartment building.

Jiraiya looked around for a moment before making a few one handed hand signs. Iruka's eyes widened at that but he stayed silent.

"Subtle sound distortion jutsu, nobody can hear exactly what we say now, even screws with the air a bit to prevent lip reading. Listen you know a lot more about Naruto than most and I've checked you out myself so I'm sure you can be trusted but you have to keep this to yourself. The Old Man would probably freak out if he found out that I told you. The kid's my Godson." Jiraiya stated sadly as Iruka's eyes widened even more than they had at the one handed signs.

"That would mean that his..." Iruka started.

"Yes, but don't you dare say it out loud." Jiraiya cut him off.

"Well that explains your interest but why haven't you done anything before?"

"I was told to stay away from him. I was also given endless assurances that he would be well taken care of. I've come to the conclusion that wasn't the case so I'm doing what I can to help him out without getting into too much trouble. Granted the Old Man probably knows to some degree that I'm doing this but since it's nothing blatant he hasn't given me any grief about it, even after that fiasco with the kid and the Shunshin. I'm hardly ever in this area and I would greatly appreciate if you could keep a bit of a sharper eye on him. Maybe even help him with his sealing if he runs into any real headaches. I'm sure that what ever you know will be more than he does."

"I'll do my best Lord Jiraiya."

"Thank you. I'd talk more but I really have to run. You take care of yourself and thank you again, you have my eternal gratitude."

Jiraiya quickly vanished in a swirl of leaves leaving the rather stunned Iruka standing there wide eyed. He was taken aback by the legendary ninjas obvious and intent sincerity with his thanks. This had turned into a very surprising evening. Although considering that it involved Naruto he felt oddly amused overall.

-ooo-

Shino entered the training ground with some take out grilled fish and rice. Naruto was sitting over on a large rock with an intense expression of concentration on his face as he read a scroll. Shino notice that there was a second scroll on the rock next to Naruto.

"What is that scroll about?" Shino asked, somewhat surprised to see Naruto studying an unfamiliar scroll so intensely.

"Hmm...Oh, it's about storage seals." Naruto looked up after a moment.

"Storage seals?"

"Yeah that weird old guy that was with the Old Man stopped by my apartment yesterday with Iruka-sensei and gave it to me along with a few other ones. He said, um, actually he told me to try to not say anything about them." Naruto glanced down not wanting to upset his best friend.

"I am assuming you mean Lord Jiraiya and The Hokage. You really should do a better job about describing people. You don't have to worry about telling me anything further I understand, probably better than you do." Shino said with a small nearly invisible smile.

"Hey!" Naruto hesitated for a moment before continuing. "Well he did say that I could tell you and that he really wasn't allowed to tell me anything but that my mother wrote this scroll and that my father wrote this other scroll. He said that I should have them. He also said he hoped he would be able to tell me more when I got older. The weird, um, I mean Jiraiya.."

"You mean 'Lord Jiraiya'." Shino interrupted with a smirk.

"Yeah, Lord Jiraiya. He said that both of my parents knew a lot about seals, more than even what the Hokage said and while my dad was a bit better than my mom, she knew all sorts of stuff too. He also left me three other scrolls, one more from each of my parents but he said I should hold off on reading those two of them until I understood these two. The last one was one he wrote himself. He said that it's some sort of Fuuinjutsu scanning jutsu." Naruto stated, carefully and slowly going through the syllables for Fuuinjutsu.

"Can you tell me about the other scroll from your father that Lord Jiraiya said you could study?"

"Well I skimmed through it really quickly and really didn't understand any of it. Even though Lord Jiraiya said it was a pretty basic scroll on the subject. It's about chakra buffers in seals. This one that my mom wrote really seems a lot easier to me."

"Did he tell you anything at all about the others?"

"Yeah! The second one from my mom is about setting up a storage seal to hold raw chakra and the second one from my father is about linking seals. The scanning jutsu thing is something he said he's found to be very useful and that he uses it all the time when he's trying to figure out strange seals."

"That is interesting. It seems safe to say that your family was very skilled in the sealing arts."

"Yeah." Naruto answered as his eyes seemed to focus on some impossible distance and Shino noticed his knuckles whitened as he held the scroll.

"So did I miss anything yesterday?" Ino called out as she entered the training area.

"Nothing more than a visit from the Sandaime Hokage and Lord Jiraiya" Shino answered, smiling at the shocked expression on Ino's face.

"Damn! I just knew I should have joined you guys after class! I still can't believe that your leg is fine now, not even a cast or anything." Ino turned to Naruto.

"Yeah well I don't like the hospital, luckily I heal fast." The shorter boy answered.

"Fast? Naruto you know that even with intensive chakra healing anyone else would at least be wearing a soft cast for at least a week. A civilian would have to wear a cast for something like six weeks if not more."

"It does seem to lend credence to the idea that he has a blood limit."

"Hey! The Old Man said he'd tell me everything once I made Jounin so can we drop it?" Naruto pleaded.

"Lord Jiraiya of the Sannin? The _**TOAD**_ hermit right?" Ino asked Shino.

"Indeed. Quite a co-incidence it would seem." He answered

"NOT Listening to you guys!" Naruto yelled out as he covered his ears with his hands.

Shino and Ino exchanged smiles. As much as they wanted to know exactly what was going on with the secrets surrounding Naruto, the blond boy himself had completely lost interest in solving the mystery since the Hokage had basically promised that he would know as soon as he made Jounin. Other than teasing him about it occasionally his two young friends had also tabled their own questions for the most part. Well mostly anyway.

-ooo-

Shino glanced up as he heard something of a growl from Naruto. A moment later there was a rather loud thud as his blond friend hit the mat very hard. Shino frowned and he began to pay closer attention to Naruto as he faced off against Mizuki sensei. Naruto leaped up and practically flew towards Mizuki in an arrow straight line, fists flying. A moment later he was face down on the mat again. Shino's frown deepened slightly when he saw a smile of satisfaction flash on Mizuki's face for a brief moment. That frown of Shino's deepened subtly again, although it was more mental this time as Naruto got up and their sensei's expression shifted slightly to one of seeming concern and he said a few words to Naruto. Shino's eyes narrowed slightly behind his sun glasses when Naruto looked down and Mizuki's eyes quickly scanned the taijutsu training area, lingering on Shino for a fraction of a second longer than any of the other students. Once again Shino felt appreciation towards his family's characteristic dark glasses. Mizuki had no idea that while it seemed Shino, along with the rest of the class was watching a rather interesting bout between Ino and Ami the young Aburame's attention was truly on Mizuki. Before any further hand to hand training could continue the bell rang and everyone headed out of the training area to wash up before their next class. Naruto rushed through the locker room and was the first out in the hallway where he nervously waited for one special girl to come out of the girls changing rooms.

"Hey Sakura-chan! I have a question!" Naruto called out as he ran towards his pink haired crush.

There was an ear splitting crack and for the briefest of instances the young blond had the oddest vision of nearby windows vibrating before the pain overrode everything else and he went flying through the air and down the hall.

'What the hell?' was his fleeting thought before he hit the floor.

"What the Fuck Forehead? He was only asking you a damn question! He hasn't bothered you for a couple of months and he's still recovering from a broken leg!." Ino yelled at Sakura.

Sakura was stunned at Ino's reaction, so much so that she never noticed Shino moving. Shino first looked towards Naruto and once he was satisfied that his friend was not seriously harmed he positioned himself between Naruto and Sakura but remained silent.

"What? If you're such a good friend of his why don't you go out with him." Sakura snarled at blond 'rival'.

"You don't even know if he was going to ask you out at all!"

"Oh like he ever does anything else!"

"Perhaps it would be better if you simply waited to actually hear Naruto's question before you resorted to violence. Especially seeing that I believe this to be the first time Naruto stated he had a question for you instead of simply requesting a date from you." Shino stated with a surprisingly cold tone of voice.

Sakura turned to Shino and hesitated at the implacable frown and despite the sunglasses, it was quite the icy stare the young Aburame was directing at her. She looked around, surprised to see that a significant number of their classmates had appeared and were watching the whole spectacle. Although most had amused smirks on their faces, Sakura was stunned to see that shy little Hinata had a surprisingly vicious, disapproving glare pointed her way for a very brief moment. She looked at the rest of the students, relived that most of them were barely suppressing chuckles. Her eyes drifted over to Sasuke, even he had a small fleeting smile.

"I was just going to ask if you had ever heard of any other Uzumaki's in the village. I figured that since you're the smartest one in the class that you might know." Naruto said quietly as he walked up after picking himself up off the floor.

"Oh!"

"See I told you! You're such an idiot sometimes Forehead." Ino nearly yelled.

"I'm sorry Naruto." Sakura said quietly after a few seconds.

"Does that mean that you know nothing of any other Uzumaki's in the village?" Shino asked, still with that disturbingly cold tone.

"Uzumaki's in the village?" Sakura hesitated for a few seconds. "Wait, there was Uzumaki Mito! She was a seal master from The Village hidden in the Eddies before it was destroyed. She came here and married the First Hokage."

"Thanks Sakura." Naruto said quietly before he walked off with his head down.

Ino glared as Sakura a moment longer before giving a short huff an quickly heading down the hall to catch Naruto. Shino stared at her silently for a long moment before he also followed Naruto and Ino. Sakura stood there still slightly shocked over the whole incident. The rest of the day was strangely subdued. It wasn't until later that evening when she was home that she realized that for the first time that she could remember, Naruto had not called her 'Sakura-chan'.

-ooo-

Several weeks passed. As usual, Naruto and Shino were working in one of the training grounds reserved for academy students.

"I believe that you need additional taijutsu training outside of class." Shino stated quietly as they walked deeper into the training area.

"What? My taijutsu is a lot better than it's ever been." Naruto answered even though his eyes never left the scroll he was reading.

"While that is true, you have spent most of your time outside of the academy either learning actual nin-jutsu or sealing. Although I believe you have also been neglecting any further nin-jutsu recently due to the inordinate amount of time you spend studying sealing."

"Ah, what's the big deal anyway. You know I'm not going to get much if anything out of any of the academy jerks besides Iruka-sensei. They're not going to teach me any nin-jutsu until I master the basic three. Even Iruka-sensei has told me that he's not even allowed to teach me or any other student any of the better jutsu until I get those three down. He said that word came down from the Old Man that he had to watch me even more so now after my recent visit to the hospital. I figure my best bet is to get my Genin rank and then learn some decent tai-jutsu and some kick ass nin-jutsu from my Jounin sensei. I'm just going to practice on the ninjutsu I know now with you and Ino after classes and see about getting that damn Shunshin to work right. As for tai-jutsu, I'll just keep going through the academy tai-jutsu classes with Mizuki-sensei."

Shino hesitated long enough that Naruto looked up from his scroll and to his friend.

"I do not believe that you should trust Mizuki-sensei"

"What!?"

"I have been closely watching him instruct you for several weeks now and I believe that he may be inhibiting your tai-jutsu skills."

"Damn it to hell and back again. I thought he was being too damn nice lately."

"I am certain that it would greatly benefit you if Ino and myself started going over the academy basic tai-jutsu with you."

"If you think it will help you know I'm not going to argue. Hey! Did Ino say what kind of food she was bringing tonight since it's her turn?"

"She did say that she wanted to try that new Yakitori stand."

"Oh, o.k. I guess. Although ramen would have been better."

"While you have no issues consuming nothing but ramen, Ino and myself prefer a somewhat more varied diet." Shino stated calmly, causing Naruto to chuckle.

Ino arrived shortly after that and they enjoyed a quick dinner before each of them settled into practicing different nin-jutsu. Each would watch the others from time to time to see if they could spot anything that would help their friends. Naruto paused as he was watching Ino before he took a half step back. The look on Ino's face was... unsettling. He couldn't tear his gaze away as her hands flashed through seals and she took a deep breath.

"Katon: Endan!" She screamed.

Both Naruto and Shino smiled as a nice sized fire ball erupted from seeming nothingness in front of her. The flames were almost as bright as the smile on her face. Although her smile only lasted a moment as the most intense exhaustion she'd ever felt in her life grabbed her tightly. Her eyes widened slightly as she wobbled for a second and then suddenly fell to the ground onto her rear end.

"Congratulations. Although I suspect that is the end of your jutsu training for today" Shino stated in his even voice.

"Ha, ha. You think?" Ino replied in a rough voice as a wave of dizziness passed through her.

"That was GREAT! You did it Ino!" Naruto screamed out as his fist flew into the air.

"Yeah, great, only now anyone can just walk up, stick a knife in me and there's nothing I could do to stop them." The blond girl growled out quietly as she felt a severe headache begin.

"It is extremely impressive that you managed to successfully accomplish this jutsu."

Ino simply glared at Shino until her stomach suddenly growled.

"O.k. One of you is going to get me some food." She practically snarled.

"Oh! Wait I've got just the thing!" Naruto exclaimed as he pulled out a scroll with a huge smile.

With an exaggerated flourish he waved it through the air and unrolled it onto the ground. Shino and Ino looked on as Naruto focused a small amount of chakra into his hand and placed it onto the open scroll. There was a puff of smoke that quickly cleared to reveal a rapidly spreading puddle of noodles and broth mixed with the shattered remains of two ramen bowls. Naruto's smile vanished and it almost looked as if he was about to cry.

"It looks as though I was correct that sealing ramen was going to take something other than a regular storage seal." Shino smirked

"Yeah, yeah. I'll get it to work one of these days. There's some sort of spatial parameter that I'm just not seeing. Oh man, wasting ramen." The blond boy answered, his eyes actually tearing up slightly as he looked at the spreading puddle of noodles.

"Don't say yeah, yeah like that! Wait did you just say 'spatial parameter'?" Ino stated as she looked at Naruto in shock.

"What? Wait, what's wrong with 'yeah, yeah'?"

"You sounded like Shikamaru and I hear enough of that crap from him. You know what, forget it! Go get me some ramen! Two bowls, no make it three!" Ino growled out.

"Uh, are you sure? Sakura is always saying that ramen isn't any good for her figure."

"Sakura is an idiot! How many times do I have to tell you that. I was eating full meals six times a day before I decided to learn some real ninjutsu with you two lunatics! Now Go Get Me Some Carbohydrates!" Ino exclaimed as her voice jumped up a notch in volume.

"Sure, no problem! Shino?" Naruto stated as he threw his hands up and backed away from Ino.

"One bowl of miso would be quite acceptable." Shino said with a chuckle as Naruto nodded and ran off.

"I can't believe that he actually used the phrase 'spatial parameter' and knew what he was talking about. That boy is getting stranger and stranger by the day." Ino said as she slowly began to breathe deeply and rub her temples as she blocked out the sharp hunger pangs and tried to suppress her growing headache.

Shino watched the spot in the distance where Naruto had disappeared for a few moments before answering.

"Yes indeed. He is quite full of surprises."

"Have you had any luck at all getting any new information that might explain anything at all about him."

"Unfortunately, nothing substantial. It seems that a significant amount of my clan's intelligence files have been 'scrubbed' to remove anything that might pertain to Naruto. I have read many clan reports regarding a large number of blood limits. Nothing in the records that I am able to access comes close to matching what I have observed during my sessions with Naruto when using my Kikai. There was a brief note about some sort of curse seal that seems similar to some degree as far as the Kikai's reactions to Naruto's secondary chakra but there is supposed to be some sort of easily visible physical changes that appear along with the distorted chakra of the curse. Unfortunately the report was not very comprehensive. I believe it was also scrubbed for some reason unrelated to Naruto based simply on the age of the report. Have you had any luck?"

"No, nothing that I could match up between my Dad's warning and what you've told me about the way your bugs freak out around Naruto sometimes." Ino shuddered slightly at the thought of all the beetles Shino hosted.

"It seems that our best course of action would be to simply wait for additional information. Especially considering that Naruto himself is more than willing to wait for the Hokage to tell him what the big secrets are." Shino mused.

"I still find it hard to believe that there's any sort of high end secret about Naruto, let alone at least two." Ino replied.

"Indeed. It is deeply puzzling that one is something that nearly all of the adults appear to be aware of and that there may be a secondary secret that my clan only has suspicions about. Suspicions that, as far as I can tell, are incredibly unsettling to my clan members when I have caught glimpses of them sharing that suspicion between themselves. Despite that great concern, I have occasionally noticed that they seem almost eager to see that particular suspicion of theirs confirmed. I believe many of them are hoping that the second secret could greatly benefit my clan."

"So first secret is apparently well known but yet 'S' class. Second secret is what? Double 'S' class? It's ridiculously obvious that Lord Jiraiya has an interest in him."

"We can not be certain of that. Although I doubt it is likely, it could be the toad clan itself and that they are simply using Lord Jiraiya as another channel to Naruto much as my clan seems to have become. Nothing I saw of Lord Jiraiya when he visited gave me any indication that the toads apparent interest in Naruto is due to their own interest or Lord Jiraiya's. In fact I had the distinct impression that Lord Jiraiya was there due to the Sandaime's concern over Naruto's sealing endeavors."

"Nah, I'm damn near certain that Lord Jiraiya is the one directing the toads. Call it woman's intuition." Ino stated with a chuckle.

"If you say so. Were you able to discover anything further regarding Uzumaki Mito?"

"Nothing of any importance and absolutely nothing to link her to Naruto. For all we know the Uzumaki's could have been one of the largest clans in Uzushiogakure or they could have been a single small family. With the village and entire country wiped out years ago we'll probably never know. It happened long before any of us were born and there was very little that I could find about it, at least not in the sections of my family archives that I can access." Ino replied with a sigh as her stomach growled.

"There is the sealing, I was able to discover that Uzumaki Mito was considered one of the best sealing masters of her time but that does not give us anything. Unfortunately people are not born with knowledge of sealing and it is not like Naruto is showing any any real gift in that area other than his persistence and the ability to recover quite quickly after blowing himself up."

"He's kind of freaking me out with that. Is he spending every minute of his life outside of the academy and these practice sessions of ours trying to teach himself sealing?"

"I believe so. Basically that is all he seems to do with any time he has to himself. To my knowledge he stays up each night reading and rereading those scrolls that Lord Jiraiya gave him until he passes out. I know that he has made at least a dozen copies of each of the scrolls and I suspect that he has memorized them to the point of being able to write out each scroll completely from memory. Although complete understanding of what he has memorized still eludes him."

"Damn. That's not something I would have thought Naruto would ever do."

"His tenacity once he sets his mind to something is almost unbelievable. I believe that it really became his life focus when he was told that those scrolls belonged to his parents. They along with that one kunai of his mothers are apparently the only links he has to his parents. Both Lord Hokage and Lord Jiraiya told him that his parents were both skilled in the sealing arts. He then had Sakura tell him that another Uzumaki, Lady Mito the wife of the Shodai Hokage was a seal master. Even if there is no known link between Lady Mito and Naruto he has come to believe that sealing was a major part of his family. I also believe that the fact that he is still somewhat smitten with Haruno certainly contributed to his current focus. He will not talk about it but I suspect that he has come to believe that if he gains a usable level in skill at sealing, she will be less hostile towards him."

"Now that is funny!" Ino said as she laughed.

"Unfortunately he does not enjoy any real skill at learning from simply reading scrolls. As his advances in nin-jutsu demonstrate he is much better at 'hands on' learning.

"I guess it's a good thing that he's so resilient and can handle blowing himself up all the time with those low level seals of his." Ino chuckled.

"Indeed. He may very well be the first Shinobi to learn sealing through brute force."

-ooo-

The three odd friends fell into a strange sort of routine. They rotated who would bring some sort of take out meal to their after school meetings and usually met each other at one of the open training grounds three times each week. Although they didn't manage to acquire any new jutsu much to Naruto's dismay the three of them were getting quite proficient with the five from the scroll Shino's father had given them. Naruto had improved somewhat with the Shunshin but neither of his friends were quite willing to attempt that jutsu just yet. According to Naruto's scroll, unless one had phenomenal chakra control, beginners found that the Shunshin demanded slightly less chakra than the Katon: Endan. Shino found the concept that the chakra drain for this jutsu would decline so much more dramatically than other ninjutsu once they had a few years practice with it very intriguing. To Naruto's further dismay his taller friend agreed with Ino that at this time the two of them would hold off on learning it until after they achieved their Genin rank. Naruto himself would practice it at least once every time they met. While during that time he didn't gain any real skill with landing exactly where he wanted to, he did manage to not go flying off into the distance ever again.

Shino did manage to be rather surprised by Naruto one evening. After finishing their training together for the day Shino joined his energetic friend back to his apartment for some cup ramen. Upon entering Shino was puzzled by several large stacks of paper piled up on the table.

"What's all of this?" He asked as he picked up a sheet that held nothing but strings of Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana characters.

There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to any of the characters. Shino couldn't puzzle out any sort of sealing arrays from the masses of nonsense writing either. He also quickly picked up that there was no chakra at all in any of the paper.

"Oh! Just practicing my handwriting. That weird old guy... um... Lord Jiraiya told me that my handwriting sucked. He said I'd blow myself up a little less if I could do that better.

Shino looked around, taking in the dozens of stacks of paper.

"Is there any reason why you are keeping all of this paper?"

"No real reason, just keeping track of my improvement." Naruto said as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Lord Jiraiya visited over two months ago. Have you been practicing this ever since."

"Of course!"

Shino laughed silently to himself. Naruto was certain to learn sealing by brute force.

Time passed quickly and before they knew it, their graduation exam loomed.

-ooo-

"Come on Shino you've got to help me out. Have your Kikai feed on my chakra before the test. I've just gotta pass this time. I was up until 2:00 in the morning pumping chakra into explosive tags and I don't think it helped at all. I even inked up a bunch of chakra buffers on my arms but I've never been able to get those seals to work reliably. You've gotta help me!" Naruto pleaded.

"I will do what I can. It is a shame that you were not able to better utilize your mothers scroll on those buffers or that you have yet to have any luck with the chakra storage seals described in your fathers second scroll."

"Tell me about it! I'm sure I've got exactly what I need to fix my chakra problem and I can't get either of them to work." Naruto practically wailed.

Shino let his entire colony feed on Narutos chakra for about ten minutes. The beetles themselves simply couldn't devour any more of his friends chakra. Shino still found that amazing, he was certain his colony could completely drain a typical Chuunin in less than two minutes. The young Aburame looked as his friend while sadly shaking his head. Naruto seemed to deflate, even though he knew it wasn't helping enough. A few hours later as Shino milled through the crowd of newly passed Genin out in the recreation area he spotted Naruto exit the academy. It was ridiculously obvious that Naruto hadn't passed by the look on his face. He began to walk towards the crestfallen boy. Shino saw Hinata look towards his friend with a look of concern and it was obvious to him that she was fighting a massive internal battle in an attempt to approach the boy. He spotted Ino with a fierce look of determination on her face as she began to fight through the crowd towards Naruto. Before any of them could get close to him though Naruto's hands blurred through a set of seals and he vanished leaving a scattering of leaves drifting towards the ground. Ino immediately turned to look at Shino across the yard sadly as they both slumped their shoulders. They were quickly standing next to each other.

"Any ideas on where he could have gone?" Ino asked.

"Several but I don't believe any of them were in the direction he appeared to be heading with that Shunshin." Shino answered.

Shino looked over to Hinata, the question as to where Naruto had gone obviously on what little of his face that was visible. The girl immediately blushed softly as she quickly looked to the ground. A moment later though she slowly looked up and locked eyes with Shino while shaking her head slightly 'No'. Shino sighed as the girl quickly looked back down. It would have been so much easier if their Hyuga classmate had even managed to keep a small amount of her ability to speak to him that she had demonstrated that single time at the beginning of the class year.

"Hey! What about your Kikai? Can't they track people?" Ino asked as she looked intently at Shino.

"Yes but the best way to do so is to leave a female Kikai on the person you wish to track ahead of time. My Kikai dislike spending too much time on Naruto since they are extremely uncomfortable with the occasional bursts of that secondary chakra of his. I had my entire colony feed on his regular chakra before the test and none of them were willing to stay on him after that. I could have forced one but didn't think to do so at the time."

"Damn it."

"Indeed."

-ooo-

Shino walked down the hall towards the classroom, irritated and concerned. Irritated because thanks to Naruto he was nearly late getting to what was likely going to be the last time he entered this room. Unless he decided to teach someday of course. Concerned because Naruto had managed to vanish after the test, Shino was worried about his friends failure at becoming a Genin. Additionally something had happened involving Naruto the night after that class and despite learning that a large number of ninja had also been involved Shino was only able to discover that they had been searching frantically for Naruto. Shino had then spent all of yesterday searching for Naruto. His Kikai had only come across a few traces of his friend around the Hokage tower but the blond himself couldn't be found. That really wasn't how he would have liked to spend the day off they had been given to complete their shinobi registration after the graduation exam.

Shino took a sharp but barely audible intake of breath as he entered the lecture room and looked down towards the front of the classroom to be completely surprised. Several rows up was Naruto, fast asleep. Before he could move towards his friend Shikamaru walked up and nudged the sleeping blond.

"Hey only graduates are supposed to be here Naruto." Shikamaru stated, startling Naruto awake.

"You see this! You see this!" Naruto pointed to a Hitai-ate on his forehead. "I passed."

Naruto glanced up and flashed an exhausted smile to Shino. Before either could say anything Naruto yawned and despite obviously struggling to stay awake his eyes slowly closed as he placed his head back on the table, his outburst towards Shikamaru apparently draining the last of his energy. Shino was rather stunned. He had never seen Naruto this exhausted. Apparently whatever had happened the previous night had taken a lot out of the normally energetic blond, he usually bounced back with as little as six hours of sleep. To see him so exhausted despite having two nights to sleep off whatever happened was rather unsettling. Although perhaps there was another reason he mused to himself before his eyes scanned the room and he took note of his fellow graduates. Shino glanced around the room and he smirked as he took in the soft smile on Hinata's face. The Hyuga heiress was obviously quite happy with Narutos presence.

Shino gave one last glance towards the still sitting Naruto as he followed his new Jounin instructor, Kurenai out of the class room. Naruto returned his look and nodded. Apparently he was fine and his look conveyed that Shino shouldn't worry about him. Shino nodded his head slightly and frowned. He most certainly wasn't happy not knowing what had happened but he would wait.

-ooo-

Shino walked up the stairs that led to the top of the Hokage monument as the sun sank towards the horizon. It was a lengthy set of stairs and he was going to be very annoyed with Naruto if he wasn't at the top of the monument by the time he finally reached the top. A sense of relief passed through Shino as he spotted Naruto on top of the visage of the Fourth Hokage. Naruto seemed to be staring off into space as Shino walked up and stood behind him for a few minutes.

"Care to talk about it?"

"Not all of it. Not yet I think. I'm still trying to deal with what I learned. I have the answer to what we had been looking for about my chakra. I'm not even sure if I'm allowed to tell anyone actually. It's been driving me crazy and I barely slept at all last night." Naruto answered quietly.

"Can you explain how you passed at least?"

"I guess." Naruto paused for a moment. "It was Mizuki."

"Mizuki-sensei?"

"Yeah, you were so totally right about him. After I failed he told me that there was a special make-up test that I could take to graduate. All I had to do was steal a special scroll from the Old Man, learn the jutsu in the scroll and meet Mizuki in a special place out in the one of the outer training areas."

"You believed him?"

"Well, I can't believe it now but... Shino I was so desperate. I was pretty stupid I guess but like I said I was so desperate to graduate. I completely forgot that warning you gave me about him, I just wanted to graduate more than I ever thought possible. I've learned so much with you this past year at the academy that it seemed utterly ridiculous that something like the Bunshin jutsu would stop me. I can do more jutsu than almost any two of the other students put together but I can't make two or three Bunshin. Sure ask me to do fifty or sixty of the damn useless things and I can do that for days on end but one, two or three? Hell who am I kidding I'd be lucky if I'll ever be able to make less than twenty of those stupid clones."

"He really knew exactly how to manipulate you."

"That's not going to happen again that's for sure! Especially once I beat him down with my new jutsu. He'll be lucky to be walking any time in the next six months." Naruto laughed.

"New jutsu?"

"Hell yes! It's incredibly awesome! I almost had heart failure when I saw the first jutsu in the scroll was 'Kage Bunshin'. I looked a little further in but each jutsu was harder than the last. I couldn't believe the first thing in the scroll was another damn bunshin jutsu but this one is the best! I really put everything into it and learned it in just that one night."

"You learned Kage Bunshin no jutsu in a single night?" Shino asked as his eyebrows became slightly visible over his sun glasses.

"Yeah it was pretty hard but not as bad as I thought it would be. I..." Naruto's voice trailed off as he realized that Shino was very shocked. "What's wrong?"

"Kage Bunshin is a forbidden technique."

"Really? It didn't seem all that bad to me."

Shino looked at his friend for a few moments.

"Actually considering what little I do know about the technique it may be perfect for you. It's supposed to be ridiculously chakra intensive and that's one thing you are certainly not lacking. You should be careful with using it though. From what I have heard about it, several shinobi have died over the years due to it's use. That is likely the reason why it is a restricted jutsu."

"I don't know about that. I was able to generate about a thousand clones when I used it against Mizuki."

Shino had become rather close to Naruto over the past several months. Over that time he had learned early on how to tell when Naruto was lying or exaggerating. With the way Naruto claimed to have generated a thousand clones Shino knew he was telling the truth.

"Have you thought about the implications of knowing such technique?"

"Implications? What do you mean?"

"Naruto you have the capability to make one thousand solid clones that can think on their own to some degree from what I remember of the little I have read about the technique." Shino paused. "I probably should not say this and will likely regret it. Take your foolish hobby of pulling pranks for example. One thousand clones would enable you to pull more than two and a half years worth of pranks in a single day if you can maintain them for the full day. Also considering that these are solid clones you could possibly pull a kawarimi with one. If you build up your skills enough and stagger the Kage Bunshin with several very quick Kawarimi you would be a formidable opponent even with your poor tai-jutsu."

"Hey! I'm getting better!"

"Yes you are and with Kage Bunshin you may very well become Hokage after all."

"Damn right!" Naruto said with a rather feral grin.

"I am certain that there must be more."

"Well Iruka-sensei actually found me in the woods before Mizuki-sensei and he saved me from a whole mess of kunai. It was crazy I didn't know what the hell was going on and then.. and then.. Mizuki... he told me the big secret." Naruto looked down at the ground silently.

"I take it that you do not have some sort of cool Kekkei Genkai?"

"No." Naruto said softly.

"If you do not wish to speak about this, that is not a problem."

Naruto looked up at Shino and his taller friend was struck by the intense look of gratitude mixed with relief in his friends eyes. Naruto's shoulders straightened slightly and a brief shudder passed through him. The young blonds expression shifted as a look of determination took his features.

"I'll check with the old man and see if it's o.k. If I tell you. It's pretty crazy but I'm sure you'll understand." Naruto paused. "Shino you're the best."

"If it is as sensitive as you say it does make a lot of sense to check with the Hokage first. It seems that you are getting further and further from your reputation of class dunce." Shino chuckled as Naruto's cheeks colored slightly but his shorter friend had a small smile at his words.

"Thanks Shino. I knew you would understand." Naruto said barely above a whisper.

"That's what friends are for." Shino replied softly and the two stood there for a few moments.

"Are you ready for tomorrows test?" Naruto asked.

"I am unconcerned."

"Yeah you're team is pretty good I think, better than mine anyway. What about that 66 percent failure rate?"

"I am sure it must be necessary to weed out those unsuited for life as a shinobi."

"I can't fail anymore..."

"After your... unusual... method of graduating the academy I don't think you have much to worry about. You have an incredible advantage over all other Genin with your Kage Bunshin technique. The more I consider the implications of such a jutsu, the more I am certain that it is quite possibly the best jutsu match for you and your excessive chakra."

"Hey guys!" Both Naruto and Shino looked up as Ino called out to them.

"What's up Ino! Hey, what are you doing up here anyway?" Naruto said with one of his large grins.

"Oh a little bug told me that you were here." Ino smiled at the two boys.

"Yamanaka-san" Shino said with a small bow.

"Why so formal Shino-kun?" Ino said with a mischievous smile.

"It is merely an appropriate greeting."

"Yeah, yeah. You should relax a little more. Damn it! Now you've got me saying 'yeah, yeah'." Ino shook her head before giving a quick glare to Naruto. "What are the two of you up to now?"

"We are merely discussing tomorrows test." Shino said flatly.

"I can't believe we have another test after the graduation exam!" Ino exclaimed.

"Tell me about it and a 66 percent failure rate according to my sensei." Naruto stated glumly.

"Yeah I know! Although my father said that my team was practically guaranteed to pass. I just don't see what he sees in my team mates. I'll kill them if I have to go back to the academy." Ino stated with obvious irritation.

"Well it'll give me a chance to try out these new hydro blast tags." Naruto said with an evil grin.

"Hydro blast tags? May I see one?" Shino asked intrigued by the idea.

"If you guys are going to start messing around with any of Narutos tags I'm out of here. Good luck tomorrow." Ino gave them both a wave before turning and heading towards her home.

Naruto completely missed the silent communication of facial expressions between Ino and Shino. Ino felt relieved as Shino reassured her that their friend was fine but it was obvious that he was nervous about something. She knew that Naruto was still more comfortable talking to Shino than herself and was relieved herself that they gave her a good excuse to leave them alone.

"Later Ino-chan!" Naruto yelled out.

"Good luck to you as well." Shino stated as he rolled his eyes at Narutos outburst.

"I'm not your 'chan'!" Ino yelled back before giving the two boys one more wave as she rounded the near corner.

"So lets see this new tag."

Naruto's eyes lit up as a huge smile appeared on his face. Tomorrow was going to be an interesting day at the very least.

A/N: O.k. Hope that was acceptable, lol. Again my apologies for the insane delay along with any spelling or grammar errors. I've literally gone through this hundreds of times in the past 18 to 24 months, somebody else would have to proofread it at this point to catch the errors. Chapter 7 is already (and has been for a while) over 5,000 words. I'm pretty sure that I'm not going to be adding much more to that so it should be out 'relatively' quickly. With a little luck mid to late November 2013. Bell test is up next, got a cute little twist that I haven't seen elsewhere and I hope to God nobody else has already done it the way I've written it.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: **I was rather surprised after finally getting past Ch. 6 and looking further along that Ch. 7 was basically done, it's a bit under 6k words. So 'Surprise', hahaha. I did a bit of tweaking here and there, hopefully I haven't missed any really bad spelling or grammar issues.

-ooo-

Neither of his two so called team mates seemed to notice or rather care about the quiet and nearly sullen Naruto that met them at the bridge. Even their new sensei didn't seem to realize that there was any difference in the normally boisterous blond. Sakura did finally notice something off when she looked at the insanely fierce look of determination on Naruto's face after Kakashi explained the bell test. She quickly dismissed it though, after all there was no way that Naruto of all people could beat out herself let alone Sasuke. In short order she and Sasuke had vanished leaving Naruto to face their Jounin sensei alone. She was certain Naruto would be out of the running for one of the bells very soon.

Before long Sakura was certain she was right as Naruto went flying off into the river. To her amazement though a mass of orange erupted out of the water as seven, eight or nine Narutos attacked Kakashi sensei.

'Wait a second. He said that there was a sixty six percent failure rate but then why are there two bells? There should only be one. Damn it's some sort of prank, I just know it. Unless... Unless he's out to just screw me.' Naruto's eyes narrowed as he thought to himself while he watched from the shadows hidden among the rocks near the rivers edge.

His frown deepened as he rubbed his sore rear end.

His nine clones looked like they were putting up a pretty good show against Kakashi for a moment. At least until the gray haired jounin turned the tables on them and vanished, leaving them fighting among themselves until there was just one. A few moments later Naruto gasped as the one remaining clone that he had made first that had almost half his chakra was pulled into the air by a snare. Luckily though it didn't disperse and shortly it was dangling by its ankle.

Sasuke attempted to attack Kakashi with a kunai and shuriken trap and his stupid clone was caught by a second snare as Naruto watched and shook his head. He was not only surprised by the resiliency of the last clone but by its straight forwardness.

'Stupid clone. ' He thought as he tried to figure out what to do next.

Naruto almost jumped up when Sakura's scream echoed throughout the training area but he held fast and watched. A moment later he caught sight of Sasuke facing Kakashi in the distance. Narutos irritation grew as he caught glimpses of the fight and realized that Sasuke was putting up a better fight on his own than all nine of his clones had earlier. His eyes grew wide as he saw Sasuke pull off a very impressive Katon jutsu and he grumbled as he took note that the Uchiha's fireball was larger than the all of the ones he had learned to do with Shino.

'Bastard is either a fire type or at least neutral for fire.' Naruto thought as the flames faded.

Naruto began to smile as he watched the prize Uchiha pulled into the ground and left there with only his head sticking out of the ground. The smile faded as he watched Kakashi easily capture his clone after the dopey clone attempted to steal lunch. As if the clone could actually eat anything and have it matter.

'Screw his rules.' Naruto thought.

He pulled a ration bar out of his belt pouch and quickly ate it while Kakashi was finishing the knots holding his last clone. As he swallowed the last of the dry field ration he opened up his special pouch inside of his jacket and pulled out a thick stack of paper. Spreading the rectangular tags out a bit his smile returned as he stood up to reveal himself.

"Some 'elite' ninja you are, tying up a shadow clone as if it were the real me. You lied to us somewhere along the way! There should only be one bell if it's a sixty six percent failure rate!" Naruto said as he released the jutsu, causing his last clone to vanish and the ropes to fall to the ground.

"It's about time you showed yourself. I was beginning to think you had simply run away after leaving the clones behind. As to me lying to you, well '_**Ninja**_'." Kakashi stated calmly as his one exposed eye crinkled.

Narutos frown returned. He just knew Kakashi was smiling behind that damn mask. The only questions was whether he really knew he had only faced clones the whole time or if he was bluffing now and what the hell was he trying to hide with the numbers of passing students not matching the number of bells. Naruto felt a sick pang of fear as he began to think that maybe he was the only one that was going to fail from Team 7. It wouldn't be the first time he had been singled out and screwed over.

"The only who's going to be running away around here is you! I'm not going to just roll over and let you screw me like all those others have over the years! Not without one hell of a fight! Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Naruto snarled as he brought his hands together and nearly a hundred clones appeared.

"What are you talking about? Kakashi asked, apparently unconcerned about the masses of orange.

"That's the reason why there are two bells right? You were never going to let me pass. The bells were meant for Sasuke and Sakura weren't they!" Dozens of Naruto's yelled out.

Roughly half the clones then charged Kakashi while another few dozen circled around both sides of the copy ninja. The dozen or so that were left turned to the piles of tags that Naruto had spaced out earlier. Naruto grinned evilly as the last batch of now tag equipped clones headed off to take on Kakashi.

The new and ongoing battle was intense. It was easily the coolest, most incredible thing Naruto had ever seen. Kakashi was destroying clone after clone from the first assault with apparent ease using nothing but Taijutsu. The flanking clones poured into the melee replacing the clones that had been disrupted. Kakashi became a greenish blur that seemed to merely brush near a clone to make it pop into smoke. Naruto was stunned that not one clone was able to land a single hit on his jounin instructor.

As the last of the two initial waves of clones were dispersed the third wave, the group of tag equipped clones, jumped in hurling their shadow kunai with real tags trailing after or wrapped around the handles. Naruto scowled as he took note of the tags that misfired, fizzled or simply didn't go off at all. He estimated that less than a quarter of his shock tags were going off properly, most of the rest were simply sparking a bit before the paper was consumed into a smoldering smoky ruin. The explosive tags had a much higher percentage of success. He figured that a bit more than half of them, maybe even two thirds were actually producing explosive blasts. Not a single one of the five hydro blast tags went off, one of these days he'd get those to work he thought. His rock blast tags seemed to be nearly as reliable as the explosive tags but not a single one even came close to hitting Kakashi. In fact they seemed to be doing almost as much damage to his clones as his annoying sensei was for a few moments there. The last of the clones used the last of his explosive tags all together for one last tremendous blast.

Naruto ducked down as most of the clearing was enveloped into a huge cloud and debris went flying all over. Naruto looked back up to see the clearing completely empty. As he looked around he saw no sign of Kakashi.

"That would almost have been impressive if all of those tags had worked. You know you really shouldn't skimp when it comes to buying tags." Kakashi said from behind Naruto.

The orange clad ninja screamed out as he jumped forward and twisted in the air to face his sensei. Naruto's annoyance hit new heights as he took note that not only had Kakashi not even broken a sweat when he trashed all of the clones but he didn't have so much as a speck dust on him.

"I don't buy tags! I made all of those! And they work better than any of the crap tags anyone has ever sold me!" He screamed out, his irritation quickly suppressing his shock.

"Really? Well I guess you have a lot of work to do on that skill because most of those tags were pathetic. So why do you think I actually care enough to single you out to fail instead of the other two?" Kakashi asked.

"Give me a break already! I'm not as dumb as everyone thinks I am! There's no way in hell that The Great Sasuke would ever lower himself to work with any Genin, especially me. Sakura would probably cut off her own arm to help him if she thought it would get her a date from the moody bastard. Besides she hates me almost if not more than she likes him. If it was really a 66 percent failure rate you should only have one bell. So I'd say that you're trying to screw me like all of those academy instructors and shopkeepers have for years!" Naruto finished his small rant with a snarl.

Narutos hands blurred through a much practiced sequence of seals.

"Doton: Doryuu Heki!" Naruto yelled out as he slammed his hands into the ground.

Kakashi's single exposed eye widened slightly as a decent sized wall of earth erupted out of the ground between him and Naruto. Behind the wall Naruto concentrated intensely as his hands ran through another set of seals. He grimaced as he built up his chakra more than usual for this jutsu before his hands locked into the last seal and he jumped up on top of the wall. Kakashi was still standing there only he now had that damn book out.

"Oh you decided to stop hiding again?" Kakashi asked, his eye crinkling.

"Katon: Endan!" Naruto screamed as he pushed a massive amount of chakra into the jutsu.

A huge fireball erupted from his mouth as he exhaled and sent the red and yellow flames flying towards Kakashi. Narutos mouth fell open as he saw Kakashi seem to flicker and vanish just before the fireball hit.

"Not bad for a genin Naruto. Although I must say Sasuke made a much larger fireball just a little while ago and I'd say he used maybe a tenth of the chakra you just used."

"Arrrgh! I'm going to get you!" Naruto screamed again and his hands flew through another set of seals.

"You have another attack jutsu? You certainly are full of surprises." Kakashi stated as once again his eye crinkled.

Narutos fury almost got the better of him and he felt his chakra twist. He hurriedly calmed himself as he completed the set of hand seals.

"Suiton: Mizurappa!" Naruto yelled. As he kept one hand near his mouth and a jet of water erupted out of his mouth to fly off towards Kakashi.

Naruto growled as Kakashi easily danced out of the way of the blast of water. Kakashi's eye crinkled yet again as he came to a stop and began reading his book once again. Naruto growled, he hadn't even managed to so much as sprinkle a single drop of water on that damn book, let alone his damn annoying sensei. Naruto only had two jutsu left from the five he had learned thanks to Shino and the Raiton jutsu he had learned from that scroll was never really dependable whenever he used it. Still it would be better to use it and save his best as a final resort. Naruto's hands flashed through the Raiton's sequence of seals and despite feeling his chakra fight the jutsu for a moment, a bright yellow light appeared in Narutos hands for a moment.

"Raiton: Raijū Hashiri!" Naruto yelled out as a writhing, chain like burst of electrical energy reached out towards Kakashi as the head of the Raiju formed and zeroed in on the Jounin.

The copy-ninja's eye widened considerably this time and his hand blurred out as a soft glow enveloped it. The electrical energy from Naruto was intercepted and deflected by Kakashi's hand, causing it to veer off and ground itself into the Earth several meters away from the Jounin. Naruto's mouth fell open in shock at how easily his Raiton Jutsu was dismissed.

"Impressive Naruto but you and that jutsu together are far too slow to ever be a concern to someone like me. You would have to go through the Elemental Nature Transformation training for lightning before you could even begin to hope to use that jutsu against me. It would also help if I was asleep too." Kakashi taunted despite the fact that he was stunned that Naruto somehow knew that jutsu.

'_How did he possibly learn that jutsu I wonder._' Kakashi thought to himself.

Naruto fumed at the thought of any of his jutsu being slow, even if Kakashi was right. His Fuuton jutsu on the other hand was not only quick and easy for him, it took hardly any chakra. Narutos smile returned as his hands flowed through a short set of seals.

"Fuuton: Reppushou!" Naruto roared as the blast of wind was hurled towards Kakashi.

Once again Kakashi dodged Narutos ninjutsu with ease but Naruto didn't lose his smile as he noticed that this time he almost scored a glancing blow as Kakashi's sleeve fluttered from the nearness of the blast of wind. Kakashi eyed Naruto for a moment.

"You know you're certainly a good deal better than your file from the academy indicates. I would almost think that you were hiding your real skills at the academy." Kakashi said his eye maintaining the crinkle that was really beginning to frustrate Naruto so.

"I'm not finished with you yet! Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

"You can't beat me with this jutsu Naruto." Kakashi stated calmly.

"We'll see about that!" Naruto yelled out.

"If you say so." Kakashi said with a quick chuckle as he turned another page of his book.

As Kakashi looked on through his peripheral vision mildly amused, Naruto tossed his belt pouch to his clone and ran his hands through the short set of seals for the Fuuton jutsu. His clone quickly pulled out a couple of readily available kunai and threw them both at Kakashi while Naruto himself called up a rather large amount of chakra.

"Fuuton: Reppushou!" Naruto screamed out with such force that the air around him seemed to vibrate.

The gust of wind was much larger and faster than the last one he had attacked Kakashi with just moments earlier. It almost instantly caught up to the flying kunai and massively increased the velocity and power of the pair of flying knives. For a moment Naruto was certain he had finally gotten Kakashi as the knives seemed to sink into his instructor. Before he could react though, the image of the kunai studded Kakashi burst into a smoky log that fell to the ground.

"Damn you! I'll just bury you in clones and then you can see what it's like to be inside a tornado!" Naruto screamed as his eyes locked on to Kakashi where the Jounin had appeared a short distance away.

He felt his fury boil within and he concentrated an enormous amount of chakra, enough so that small wisps of blue energy began to appear around him. His hands flew together and he screamed loud enough to make his throat hurt.

"Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

Kakashi's eye widened as hundreds and hundreds of orange clones appeared out of nowhere. The hands of Naruto and all of the clones began to flash through the seals for Reppushou and although it couldn't be seen behind his mask, Kakashi's mouth feel open slightly for a brief moment before he vanished.

"Not bad Naruto but not good enough." Kakashi whispered in Narutos ear as he appeared behind the diminutive genin.

An instant later Naruto was lying unconscious on the ground, laid out by a quick blow from his own instructor. Kakashi breathed a sigh of relief as the roughly eight hundred clones vanished nearly as fast as they had appeared. Luckily Naruto hadn't moved from his original position and Kakashi's Jounin speed with using the Shunshin took full advantage of the genin's lack of experience before he or any of his clones could finish the seals on their Fuuton jutsu. In short order Kakashi had Naruto tied to the log.

-ooo-

Sasuke was fuming. He was irritated beyond anything he had ever experienced in the academy over how easily Kakashi had defeated him. Granted the man was an experienced Jounin but Sasuke hadn't even come close. To make matters worse he had been pulled into the ground at such an angle that he could not see any of the current ongoing battle between Kakashi and Naruto. He thought that Naruto's new 'shadow clone jutsu' was interesting and potentially very useful. Of course watching how poorly the orange menace used it earlier just firmed up Sasuke's belief that Naruto himself was nearly useless as a team mate, even when equipped with a high level jutsu. Hearing the ongoing battle though was making him question that assessment. Whatever the annoying blond was doing it was loud as hell and going on far longer than Sasuke would have imagined possible.

'Speaking of useless'. He thought as he looked to his other and possibly even more useless team mate.

Sakura was still unconscious on the ground a few feet from him. If she hadn't burst out of the trees, taken one look at him stuck in the ground, screamed and passed out she could have dug him out long ago and he could have at least seen whatever it was that Naruto was doing against Kakashi and maybe even used the orange menace as a distraction to get a bell. Sasuke flinched as he heard a multitude of screams that had to be from a sizable number of Naruto clones, followed by a rather large series of explosions that happened nearly simultaneously. The area around them actually seemed to shake to a small degree and leaves came flying out of the clearing into Sasuke's field of vision. He heard Naruto screaming something about tags but couldn't quite make out what the blond was saying to Kakashi.

Sasuke's eyes widened in shock as he felt a massive surge of chakra and heard Naruto scream out the name of some sort of Doton jutsu. The ground definitely vibrated with that one. A few moments later he felt another even more massive surge of chakra and again he heard Naruto scream out, only this time it was Katon: Endan. Sasuke's mouth fell open to match his now even wider eyes.

'How the hell does Naruto know a fireball jutsu?' Sasuke snarled to himself in his own head before glaring even more harshly at the still unconscious Sakura.

He suddenly heard an even louder scream of pure frustration from Naruto before he felt another chakra surge and heard his team mate yell out a Suiton jutsu that he wasn't familiar with. Sasuke actually felt a surge of chakra as Naruto yelled out some Raiton jutsu. His glare towards Sakura increased as he listened. Naruto started yelling something unintelligible, some sort of fuuton jutsu with no massive surge of chakra this time. There was more yelling before an insane surge of chakra washed over Sasuke's senses that made the earlier surge from the Raiton seem like nothing. He spotted dozens of orange figures at the very edge of his vision but couldn't twist his head far enough to see anything of any real substance. Everything suddenly went still and silent but at least Sakura was stirring. Sasuke simply glowered at her as her eyes opened.

"Sasuke?" She asked, looking confused.

"Hurry up and dig me out of here!" He hissed in a snarl.

As Kakashi finished the last knot he looked up to see Sasuke and Sakura appear at the far end of the clearing. Before the remaining two genin could do any more than gape at their instructor standing next to their bound and unconscious team mate the alarm rang.

-ooo-

"So how did it go? I see you actually want to pass them but you don't let them know that they've passed yet? Really? You have to explain this one to me." Sarutobi looked intently at Kakashi as he put down the report, his amusement at the sight of the uncomfortable Jounin ridiculously visible.

"I'd like to test Naruto again with a different team arrangement."

"A different team arrangement?" Sarutobi asked obviously puzzled.

"Yes. I've asked both Kurenai and Asuma to hold off on letting their teams know they've passed until I could speak to you about Naruto. I think Team 7 would have managed a show of team work, well with a bit of prompting anyway. Enough that I would have passed them even though I told them otherwise. I think Naruto may be too independent in regards to his two team mates. Through no real fault of his own I should add. Well at least not much. His academy record is wildly inconsistent with the performance I saw from him earlier so even though I don't trust that record now there was a mention of the friendship he has built with Aburame Shino. I'd like to see how he works with someone he considers a friend.

"Before I grant you this additional test I'd like to know the details that weren't in your report." Sarutobi said.

"Both Naruto and Sasuke managed to surprise me." The silver haired jounin stated.

"Really? This ought to be interesting."

"The lesser surprise was Sasuke, he has enough chakra and skill to use at least one Katon jutsu effectively."

"Considering his clan and circumstances that isn't overly surprising. Although it isn't mentioned in his academy file so I can see how that would surprise you. What did Naruto do?"

Kakashi silently replied to the Hokage's question by pulling out several pieces of paper and placing them on Sarutobi's desk.

"What didn't Naruto do that was surprising would be a better question. I strongly suggest that you re-evaluate all of the teachers at the academy. The fact that this kid was rated dead last of his class is criminally insane. I know he's had issues with people over the Fox but either they're all idiots or the boy is some sort of freaky genius that fooled the lot of them. First off, these are the best examples of Narutos tags that didn't go off. I still have trouble believing that an academy student made all of them, especially one with academy scores as low as his across the board. Of all of his instructors only Umino Iruka ever gave him any sort of passing scores and even most of those were low. As for his tags, I picked these up after I tied him to the log. I'm pretty sure that one on your left there is the only one of it's type that was close to salvageable. It's a rudimentary shock tag and they were his most unreliable tags. I would say only between ten and fifteen percent of them went off at all and maybe only five percent would be considered potentially effective. With that one exception that didn't go off at all, the rest of those particular failures simply threw off some small electrical sparks before the tag burned itself up. The tag next to it is a basic explosive tag, he had a much higher success rate with those with slightly over fifty percent of them successfully firing. There were only five of that large one on your right and that is the only one that despite completely failing, is still somewhat legible. The other four simply became a soggy mass of pulp. It looks like he is attempting to create some sort of water cannon tag with those but not a single one of them worked very well. I would say he was trying to combine a storage tag with an explosive seal. This one I thought to be extremely interesting, it appears that he again combined a storage seal with a minor explosive seal. He had nice sized rocks in these that were exploded out of their storage matrix. Interesting concept but like his explosive tags these were only roughly successful just about fifty percent of the time and his aim with them is horrible. They're also much larger tags physically compared to normal tags. He actually took out quite a lot of his own clones with those. That last regular sized one on your right is not like the rest, it's a simple storage tag. I think in the heat of our 'battle' he accidentally mixed that one in with the others he gave to his clones. He had an extra leg holster stored in it with three kunai and eighteen shuriken. I did think it impressive that he managed to fit a storage seal onto a typical sized tag instead of a scroll. Granted it wouldn't be able to store anything more than what was in it. You did leave a short note of his interest in sealing in his academy file so I shouldn't have been surprised by him using tags but the sheer amount of tags and the variety he hurled at me was rather impressive. I don't believe I've ever seen anyone ever attempt use three radically different offensive tags at the same time before. Although perhaps you could count them as four different types of tags if you count his rock throwers and water cannon tags separately even though they're both basically explosive tags tied to storage seals. I suppose most shinobi either simply can't create that many types of tags due to the chakra drain or don't want to spend the money on them but despite the failure rate of his tags Naruto uses them rather well with his clones, especially considering his lack of experience and his dismal academy record. Another interesting item of note though, he claimed that despite their flaws, his tags are better than anything he can buy. I believe that is something we should look deeper into." Kakashi did not look happy after saying that.

"Really. Now that is disturbing and I most definitely will be looking into that. Personally." The Hokage stated with a frown.

"His clones definitely used one attack pattern that was a direct adaptation of an Aburame Kikai attack. Although it was one of the more basic patterns they use, that was the deciding factor that made me want to see Naruto working with Shino. It seems to me that he is even closer to Shino than what is mentioned in his file."

"Yes the two of them are quite close. In fact it was Shino who introduced him to sealing. Anything else?"

"Yes, two more things of real interest actually. For one, on two occasions he pulled off a Kawarimi immediately after creating a batch of clones, switching places with one of the clones. Amazingly enough the switch did not disrupt the clones. He was a little slow but when you factor in the fact that he's only known the Kage Bunshin technique for such a short time, it is down right unsettling how well he is already using it. Also he knows and can use at least five ninjutsu that were not taught at the academy. One defensive doton jutsu and a single offensive jutsu for each of the other four elements."

"He knows and uses jutsu from each of the elements? That is very interesting. I'm not overly surprised at his use of the shadow clones though, he certainly has enough chakra to generate very sturdy clones."

"Oh one more thing, It was also pretty obvious that not only is his chakra is wind natured but that he is aware of that fact. There were no indicators that he had any real trouble with either his doton or suiton jutsu, he did use a ridiculous amount of chakra for his katon but it was rather impressive. Despite producing a smaller fireball than Sasuke, I would say that the fire was definitely hotter. He visibly fought with his raiton jutsu but still managed to pull it off. I was very surprised that he attempted to use Raijū Hashiri against me. I never imagined that a rookie Genin would not only know such a jutsu but be able to pull it off. It's even more incredible that he can pull that off when his chakra is aligned with wind. Hell most chuunin have never heard of it, I imagine that Kumo would be most upset if they learned that a recent Konoha academy graduate could use one of their prized 'elite' jutsu. Finally his fuuton, well that was extremely impressive. I would say that his ability with that one jutsu is at least mid chuunin level, quite possibly high chuunin. The interesting thing is that he not only used it as his trump card jutsu but it was the only ninjutsu other than Kage Bunshin and Kawarimi that he repeated. In fact after using it the first time he then used it in tandem with the Kage Bunshin, increasing the effectiveness of both. Before I knocked him out he was getting ready to use it a third time and threatened to show me what it was like inside a tornado. He proceeded to generate approximately 800 clones all of which were all about to fire off a Fuuton Reppushou. I think it is fair to say that he was not exaggerating when he claimed he would show me the inside of a tornado. I like to think that it probably would have only been a short lived F1 but the amount of raw chakra the boy has is rather disturbing. His tai-jutsu is sub par but much better than noted in his academy file. It is even more surprising that he is as skilled as he is when you factor in that his tai-jutsu instructor was a traitor that tried to kill him the other night. I can't imagine Mizuki not sabotaging his training for months ahead of time." Kakashi said with a sigh and then quietly stood there as the Hokage thought.

"I'll grant you the additional test. In fact we should have Kurenai and Asuma here as well." Sarutobi replied as he pressed a button on his desk.

"Yes Hokage-sama?" A young chuunin asked as she entered the Hokage's office.

"Please have Yuuhi Kurenai and Sarutobi Asuma join us as soon as possible."

-ooo-

Naruto stared dejectedly at the noodles in the bowl in front of him. For once the savory soup was not cheering him up. He really wasn't depressed, well not anywhere near as much as he was confused. He was certain that his team was going to fail when he realized none of them had any effect on their sensei but Kakashi sensei had acted really weird, telling them that they hadn't passed and yet that they hadn't failed either before he disappeared. The curtains behind him rustled and as he glanced over he began to smile at the sight of his friend Shino. The blonds smile never fully formed as he saw his friend frowning.

"Hey Shino what's going on?"

"I am unsure. Your Jounin sensei arrived during our assessment test. He spoke to Kurenai sensei for a few moments and left. She seemed annoyed at him and to my teams surprise she immediately stopped our test and told us that we had neither passed nor had we failed. It was most unusual."

Before either of them could say anything else a furious Ino appeared.

"What did you do!" She yelled out as she grabbed Naruto's jacket and spun him around to face her.

"What?" Naruto asked, looking ridiculously confused.

"Yamanaka-san, it might be easier to explain." Shino stated softly.

Ino glared harshly at Shino before breathing out a rather loud sigh. Her stomach growled softly and her eyes drifted over to the menu on the wall.

"O.k. But he's buying both of us dinner!"

"Sure!" Naruto hurriedly stated. Ino and Shino both ordered a simple bowl of miso ramen and each took a seat on either side of Naruto.

"Your weirdo sensei appeared during our test and spoke to Asuma sensei for a few moments before vanishing. Asuma sensei immediately stopped our test and told us that we had neither passed or failed and that we would meet up tomorrow for another test before he vanished as well. Shikamaru was close enough when they were talking to hear your sensei say something about you doing something weird and that he was looking into setting up a new test for a bunch of us.

-ooo-

Kurenai looked at Kakashi with a rather obvious expression of irritation.

"Well if you want to see Naruto at his best you will want to team him up Shino and I'd say Yamanaka Ino would be the best choice for the third of their temporary squad. She doesn't have any real disdain or attraction issues with either of them and in fact has a pretty solid although somewhat distant friendship with the two of them. The three of them have even trained together after normal academy hours on numerous occasions in the past few months. At times as often as three times a week with all of them together." She stated in a very matter of fact manner.

"Attraction issues?" Kakashi asked.

Kurenai looked over to Asuma who seemed just as baffled as Kakashi. In fact a moment later the two men looked at each other and each of them shrugged. Kurenai rolled her eyes and sighed.

"I take it neither of you two bothered to look over the prospective Genin beyond looking at their files while they were at the academy yourselves when you were tapped to be Jounin-sensei. Most of the girls in the recent academy class are ridiculously infatuated with Sasuke. The only notable exception is Hinata, although she has a rather strong crush of her own on Naruto. I have some suspicions that Ino is not anywhere near as infatuated with the Uchiha as she usually acts. Naruto himself is fighting off his own massive crush on Sakura, who can't stand him. In fact the young Haruno has some severely violent tendencies towards the poor boy. It is my opinion that it is foolish to place Sakura and Naruto on the same squad. There is a good chance that he will begin to resent her if her abuse continues." Kurenai finished speaking and glared at the Hokage.

"I'm sure they'll work that out on their own Kurenai. I have a feeling this additional test is going to cause some waves and several people are going to want to see this. We'll use the arena so it will be easier to accommodate spectators while also keeping it relatively secure. Say, 10:00 tomorrow morning. Oh Kakashi." The Hokage stated.

"Yes?"

"This is all because of you. Do not be late."

"Yes sir!"

The three Jounin left the Hokage's office, all the while their village leader had a small smile on. The small smile faded though as he felt the chakra signatures of Inuzuka Tsume and Hyuuga Hiashi approaching the tower.

**A/N:** No target date for Ch. 8 yet. I would like to try for the end of November but there's two complete sections that need to be written, so end of December may be a bit more likely, will have to see how well the kids sleep. It's currently around 4500 words.

Oh, I know some were very curious about the Raiton that was finally revealed here. I primarily use Leafninja to find jutsu from the series. I like to think that the ones I picked would be more along the lines of 'High Chakra, Low Complexity' type of jutsu. Although Raiju Hashiri 'felt' like something of a stretch it seemed to be the best fit. Here's the full list I used though:

Suiton: Mizurappa

Doton: Doryuu Heki

Katon: Endan

Fuuton: Reppushou

Raiton: Raijū Hashiri


	8. Chapter 8

**Ch 8**

**A/N: ** Some typical profanity in this one, one of the reasons why I give my stories an 'M' rating. Word count came out to about 6300 words not counting the author notes. Typical disclaimer that I don't own any sort of rights to any of the Naruto properties. Also my apologies for any spelling or grammar mistakes that slipped through. It's nearly midnight here right now and I really should have been asleep two hours ago, lol.

-ooo-

The nine Genin stood before the Hokage in a ready room of the arena.

"There have been some concerns voiced regarding the composition of your three teams. Considering the lot of you were doing the best out of all the recently graduated Genin it has been decided that we will try mixing things up a bit and seeing if there are any differences of note that might allow us to salvage three full squads. This is going to be something of an exhibition along with an assessment. In all likelihood your original squads will remain as they are, provided you all pass but for these tests you will be working together in squads as follows.

Team Gray will be, Naruto, Shino and Ino.

Team Blue will be, Sasuke, Chougi and Hinata.

Team Red will be, Sakura, Shikamaru and Kiba.

Team Gray you're up first, follow Shiranui Genma." The Hokage said.

Naruto looked over to Kakashi uneasily, his maybe sensei had followed them out, before turning to his two temporary team mates. Naruto whispered a near silent prayer of thanks to whatever Kami that had arranged to put him together with Shino and Ino.

Genma looked up to the Hokage who was now up in the stands and gave a slight nod.

'This ought to be interesting.' He thought to himself.

It wasn't every day that a Special Jounin was asked to work with unconfirmed Genin. In fact something like this was unheard of. The Hokage had asked him to push the group he was facing a bit and let them work together for a while to give them a chance to show off some of their skills. He and two other Special Jounin were being paid full B-rank mission rates for this though, so none of them were going to argue. Genma smiled slightly as the three obviously nervous Genin followed him as they entered the arena floor. Kakashi immediately disappeared as soon as he got to the floor. Genma's smile increased slightly as he saw the odd Jounin appear not too far from the Hokage. His smile faltered though as he took in that several other people were up in the stands including the parents of Yamanaka Ino and several of Aburame clan. Even Umino Iruka was up there, the Chuunin appearing somewhat nervous himself.

Naruto stared around in awe as he took in the sight of the arena. He had been up in the stands a few times before but this was the first time he was on the floor itself.

"Damn, the water table is really close to the surface here, about six or seven feet down I think. I'm going to be able to do nearly as much here as I can when we practice near the river." Ino stated with a rather predatory grin.

"So what do we start with?" Naruto asked in a whisper.

"Taijutsu." Shino replied while Ino nodded in agreement.

Naruto almost immediately lost track of the odd sparring match between the three young people and the Special Jounin. It was pretty much a blur of jabs, punches, snap kicks and roundhouse kicks. He just went along for the ride trusting in the forms his friends had been drilling into him over the past 10 months or so, trying to ignore much of what the traitor Mizuki had shown him. Not once did he or either of his team mates even come close to hitting the guy chewing on the senbon needle. Naruto took a good hit that sent him flying and he wasn't even sure if he had been punched, kicked or pushed into one of his team mates strikes. It had to have come from the Jounin, his friends simply didn't hit that hard but he hadn't seen anything before he had gone flying. He did notice that both Shino and Ino had slowed slightly though and knew that they were not going to get anywhere fighting like this. His hands flew together as he shouted, causing several dozen clones to appear. As the clones surged forward the three Genin retreated to a spot a bit closer to the center of the arena.

"Damn it what is it with these Jounin? I don't think this guy is quite as good as Kakashi-sensei but still, why can't any of my clones land even a glancing hit on the guy?" Naruto demanded as he watched Genma destroy dozens of orange clad clones using nothing but taijutsu.

"Duh! They're Jounin. Even if there were a hundred of you, your taijutsu just isn't good enough to equal anyone in Konoha with that rank. Still it is rather impressive that you are keeping him busy." Ino stated as her eyes tracked the ongoing decimation of Narutos clones.

"We should do something more than simply watch our opponent destroy Naruto's clones. Especially considering that he is about to dispatch the last group of them." Shino stated quietly.

"Time for some ninjutsu then?" Naruto asked with a manic grin.

"Indeed." Shino replied.

"You two..." Ino said as she rolled her eyes.

"O.K. Shino you head off to the right and start throwing kunai at him when you get any openings, try to push him over by that large rock to the left and be ready to hit him with your Suiton jutsu. I think we should start out hitting him with the ones against our elements and save our primes. Ino, you ready to fly with your Katon?" Naruto asked as the Jounin easily dodged the first kunai that Shino hurled his way.

"This had better work this time!" Ino growled out causing Naruto to smile.

His hands flashed through seals as he rolled onto his back, tucking his knees in and lifting his feet up as he pushed a decent amount of chakra into his legs. Ino jumped up and gracefully landed on his feet as he continued to roll back and extend his legs forcefully. Ino also flooded her legs with chakra and began to jump herself. As his legs reached full extension he finished the last hand seal and released the chakra he had been molding.

"Fuuton: Reppushou!" He yelled out and directed the blast of wind up to Ino causing her to fly far higher into the air than what was possible for many Jounin even.

As she flew upwards her kunai began to flash towards Genma as she quickly hurled a surprising amount of knifes at the man. Naruto had immediately flipped over to complete his roll before quickly reversing his motion and lunging forward towards the Jounin. His hands came together and oddly, without a word a dozen shadow clones appeared, which immediately began to peel off to each side of Naruto. As the clones ran they began to pull out shadow kunai of their own and hurl the blades towards their opponent. Shino increased the tempo of his own kunai throwing from the other side of Genma as a cloud of Kikai began to appear above him.

Genma easily dodged the multitudes of kunai and frowned as he noticed the small smile on Naruto's face. The three Genin were obviously attempting to herd him into a specific area. Unfortunately the sheer volume of kunai pretty much forced him to go exactly where they wanted him unless he were to use some more advanced jutsu. While that would normally be his choice in a real fight the Hokage wanted to see what these kids could do so he continued to let them herd him where they wanted him.

Naruto quickly called up about three dozen more clones and his hands flashed through seals once again as the mass of new clones all looked up to track Ino and began to move so they could catch her.

"Raiton: Raijū Hashiri!" Naruto called out and a writhing line of electrical energy quickly flowed off towards Genma. At the same time Shino's hands flashed through their own set of seals and the Special Jounin heard Shino call out.

"Suiton: Mizurappa" Quickly followed by Ino's voice from above call out

"Katon: Endan!"

Genma's eyes widened and his mouth fell open in shock.

'These are Genin?' he thought to himself as he twisted his head back and forth while his eyes darted to the large number of kunai heading towards him that Naruto's clones had continued to hurl his way along with Naruto's Raiton jutsu, Shino's Suiton and Ino's Katon. Even worse was the building threat of Kikai behind Shino.

'The hell with this!' He thought to himself and he promptly vanished just before a huge cloud of dust erupted from his vacated position as the three jutsu and several dozen shadow kunai crashed together.

"I just knew that wasn't going to work, despite how awesome it was." Naruto growled out.

"I agree." Shino stated calmly.

"Our only real chance to hit him with Ninjutsu would be to switch over to our primary affinities. Especially since I would just be wasting chakra doing any more fireballs." Ino huffed obviously somewhat winded as she ran up to join the boys.

"I'll distract him for a bit while Ino catches her breath." Naruto said as he jumped up and ran full out towards Genma. His two team mates shook their heads but were smiling as shadow clones began to appear alongside of Naruto, all of them again rushing towards the Special Jounin. Genma smiled as he zeroed in on Naruto, surging forward himself to land a quick jab right to the Genin's face. To Genma's surprise that Naruto disappeared into a cloud of smoke. Somehow the little annoyance had managed a seamless transfer with one of the clones that Genma hadn't picked up on. That odd little 'dance' continued for a few minutes. Genma would immediately key in on which Naruto was generating the shadow clones but every time he would flicker next to the young ninja and actually hit him, the orange clad Genin would burst into smoke, turning out to be yet another Shadow Clone. The Special Jounin would quickly dispatch several or a dozen more clones, spot the next batch being created and which of the many Naruto's was doing the actual creating, Shunshin over to him, hitting each time with a different tai-jutsu strike, only to be met with the frustration of popping yet another shadow clone. Somehow the boy must be doing a Kawarimi with a clone as soon as he spotted Genma's hands start the seals for the Shunshin.

"Damn, I thought you were a pain in the ass before." Genma muttered to himself.

Genma though never stopped smiling. As annoying as this was he was pretty sure he could easily stop the kid in his tracks. Especially with the limited space of the arena. Granted he would need a minute or two to put a stop to Naruto switching places with his clones. A minute or two that he wasn't likely to get at the level he was fighting these Genin. Besides the Hokage wanted to see these kids in action he thought as he stole a quick glance to the stands.

"Are you ready?"

"Close enough I think. I can't believe how well he's using that Shadow Clone jutsu, he's going to drive people bananas with that. Damn, I also still can't believe how much that Katon jutsu takes out of me. We going with a 'Channel Wash'?"

"Indeed. The wall of the arena is especially suitable for that maneuver. Additionally you should be able to pull up a very impressive amount of water if the water table is as close as your earlier estimation." Shino said with a smile.

Ino ran off, away from the rolling battle between the Jounin and the masses of copies of Naruto. Shino headed slightly to her right, positioning so he would soon be directly centered between Ino and Naruto. Naruto smiled as he saw the directions his friends were going and he started running clones alongside the wall. Genma never stopped smiling as he followed along bursting clones. He was mildly surprised when Shino appeared off to the side a bit, muttering something as the young Aburame's hands flashed through seals. Once again Genma was surprised to see a freaking Genin pull a decent ninjutsu with apparent ease as a rather large wall of earth erupted out of the ground parallel to the wall. Even more impressive was this one was a C Rank. The special Jounin never stopped smiling though as he ran through the trench like area between the arena wall and the wall of earth Shino had pulled off. His eyes did widen though when Ino appeared at the end of the walled section he was in and a very large torrent of water appeared before the small blond girl. Genma was shocked at how much water the girl had pulled into the jutsu but that didn't stop him from flickering out of sight to reappear closer to the center of the arena. His smile broadened as he took in the frowns of frustration on the three Genin. He paused and took a deep breath as his gaze drifted up towards the Hokage. He gave a quick glance to each of the Genin and estimated he had a least a minute before even that pain in the ass Naruto would be throwing at him. Yeah, at least a minute for them to regroup and come up with another attack. Unfortunately the Genin, Ino especially did not have the same estimate.

Naruto heard Ino call out.

"Shintenshin no jutsu!"

Genma immediately flickered as he felt the soft touch of the Yamanaka jutsu at the edges of his mind, appearing across the arena before turning towards Ino. Naruto eyes widened as their opponent suddenly flew towards Ino. That Shintensen jutsu whatever it was had apparently failed and left her wide open to attack. Naruto wasn't sure what the hell was going on as Ino seemed spaced out and not really awake. She seemed to shake herself but the young blond girl only had enough time to look up as Genma's fist flew towards her face. Narutos hands flew together and with a huge surge of chakra he pulled off a kawarimi with Ino, easily overpowering her chakra so he instantly stood in her place. He didn't have enough time to dodge or block the strike but he knew that before he pulled off the kawarimi and his hands were flying up in what looked like an attempt to block anyway. There was a rather loud crack and Uzumaki went flying.

Naruto spun in mid-air, his huge smile easily visible as he tumbled a few times across the ground before hopping up onto his feet. Scuffed, scratched and dirty but his ridiculously large smile was still bright. Genma scowled for a moment as he took in the sight of the smiling prankster before his eyes suddenly widened in surprise as he felt a tingle of chakra on his arm. Looking down he saw that Naruto had somehow managed to stick a tag onto his arm during their encounter.

"Shit!" He cursed as he quickly peeled the paper off of his arm and pulled off a quick kawarimi of his own to distance himself from the tag.

Narutos grin faltered as a log appeared in Genma's place. To make matters worse the shock tag sputtered for a few seconds, threw off a few sparks and quickly turned into a burnt piece of paper, not even managing to fail with any sort of decent effects.

"Damn it! One of these days I'll get those damn shock tags to work the way they're supposed to. I knew I should have used an explosive tag." Naruto muttered as Shino appeared next to him followed an instant later by Ino.

"We need one of your unconventional ideas." Shino whispered.

"It had better be good if we're going to get this guy. Thanks by the way, you can certainly take a hit Naruto." Ino growled as she appeared next to the boys and glared at their opponent.

"I do not believe your attempt to use Shintenshin was appropriate in such circumstances Ino. Naruto?" Shino stated earning a glare from Ino.

"Yeah, yeah! I think I may have something. Do you think you can get a whole mess of your Kikai onto a bunch of my shadow clones without anyone seeing them?" Naruto whispered as he looked to Shino

"I do believe so."

"O.k. I'll whip up some clones, Shino gets the Kikai onto the clones, they attack Mr. Jounin there so every clone he pops will dump Kikai on to him."

"Interesting plan. I am reasonably certain this will allow me to get enough kikai onto him long enough to drain enough of his chakra so your Shintenshin will actually have a chance of working. If you wish to attempt it again that is." Shino said as he turned to Ino.

"Sounds good." She replied, obviously irritated as she glared at Genma.

"You guys are going to have to explain this Shintensen thing to me but not now, lets go!" Narutos hands flew together and a dozen clones appeared as he called out the jutsu uncharacteristically softly.

Shino directed a large portion of his colony into the ground. Unseen they emerged under the feet of the shadow clones and quickly crawled up under the shadow clones clothing. Shino smiled as the clones didn't react to the beetles crawling over their 'skin'.

Genma wasn't sure what was going on as more and more clones of Naruto appeared but stayed back, not attacking him.

He'd give them a minute or so. He thought as he stole a fast glance to the stands.

Before the minute was up though the dozens and dozens of clones surged forward. He was pretty sure that Naruto himself was leading the charge but once again when he punched that Naruto it burst into smoke. He quickly keyed onto the one generating more clones. Surging forward he was expecting to catch the kid start up the Kawarimi jutsu sooner or later. As he reached the one he was focused on he thought he felt a whisper of chakra that seemed like a Kawarimi. He was surprised as he actually spotted the image of the clone waver before it disrupted by itself before he could get a chance to hit it. Even more surprising though was the mass of black beetles that emerged from the smoke of the disrupting clone.

"Fuck!" He actually exclaimed as he dodged the swarm, picking off clones along the way as he fled the beetles. Before he could key in on the Naruto generating clones he burst one that practically exploded into Kikai. He dove to the ground in a flat chakra assisted spin on his stomach before rolling backwards onto his feet to leap off into a chakra assisted jump giving him some distance from the two small clouds of Kikai and the masses of clones. His kunai flashed forward deflected four incoming blades from Shino and Ino before he turned and ran back towards the crowd of clones. He had almost instantly locked onto what he knew had to be the real Naruto but again as he closed in he felt the Kawarimi. This one again disrupted on its own, revealing a third small cloud of Kikai that he barely dodged. He flickered around easily disrupting nearly two dozen clones, while deflecting at least a dozen kunai from each of Naruto's team mates. Unfortunately two of that batch of disrupted clones also had Kikai in them somehow.

"Damn it to Hell and back again. As if he wasn't bad enough pulling off seal less and smokeless Kawarimi's, that little bastard somehow got a bunch of Kikai onto his clones. Man I am never going to live this down when the other Jounin see the tape from this." Genma muttered as he dodged Kikai, kunai and clones.

He saw Shino and Ino running along the wall, trying to position themselves for good throwing angles along the path that Narutos clones were attempting to push him. Ino was sporting a rather self satisfied smirk on her face that actually irritated Genma slightly.

"You guys aren't _**that**_ good." He whispered as he reached into his pouch and pulled out what appeared to be a heavy duty smoke bomb.

He flickered with a burst of speed that almost matched a Shunshin but was really just a chakra boost. The sphere in his hands flew out towards Shino and Ino. It impacted the ground almost perfectly between the two and burst into a cloud of smoke. Weights and wires erupted out from the small explosion, quickly tying up the two Genin and pulling them tight to each other. That wiped that annoying little smirk off of Ino's face, Genma smiled with his own smirk of satisfaction. He actually chuckled as he heard some of the profanity coming from the young blond girl. The six small clouds of Kikai that had been pursuing him immediately peeled off, heading towards their host. He fell back a bit, destroying clones along the way until he was certain Naruto and the majority of clones rushing after him were all grouped along one wall. He hadn't had one burst into a cloud of Kikai for three or four dozen clones now, so he hoped that trick was done. They hadn't manged to get him with that one but he had at least two very close calls escaping the beetles. A quick glance to Shino and Ino assured him that they would be tied up for a little bit longer. A quick Shunshin landed him in the center of the arena where he immediately pulled out a scroll. Tossing it to the ground where it unrolled on it's own, he ran through a quick series of hand seals while pulling up a large amount of chakra. He finished the hand seals, slammed his hands down onto the scroll while releasing the massive amount of chakra into the scroll.

"Disruption field, activate." Genma smiled, he had at least fifteen minutes now, possibly twenty.

Hey immediately keyed in on the Naruto that was generating clones. This time though he felt an extremely satisfying impact when he punched that one and Naruto didn't vanish into a cloud of smoke. It was even sweeter seeing the look of shock on the kids face as he tumbled across the ground again. Genma stood back for a moment as a look of ridiculously intent concentration flashed onto Narutos face before the look of shock reappeared. Genma continued to smile at the young blond as he stood there and went through a very quick set of hand seals. Genma chuckled out loud as the shock faded from the Genin's face and the boy glared at him furiously. Naruto ran through the hand seals one more time and drew up a massive amount of chakra. Genma's smile faltered as he actually felt the humongous surge as Naruto forced the ridiculous amount of chakra into the E rank jutsu. The ground shook for a moment as Naruto released the jutsu. There was a strange and oddly soft ringing sound as Naruto appeared to vibrate intensely for the briefest span of time before he surged sideways about a half a meter before falling to the ground. Genma spotted one of his clones almost 10 meters behind the blond burst and the Special Jounin's smile returned.

"No more Kawarimi for you." Genma laughed as he turned back to see the other two had managed to free themselves from his wire trap.

Genma figured that Naruto was going to be out of it for a little while with his attempt to overpower the Disruption field. He turned to the other two Genin, forming a shadow clone of his own. He didn't really care for the jutsu no matter how useful it was. It really took far too much chakra for him to be comfortable using it very often. Still there were times when it was just too handy not to use. He sent his clone over to harass Shino while he targeted Ino.

Naruto shook his head and squeezed his eyes shut for a moment. He no longer had the double vision or dizziness that had happened when he tried to fight whatever that annoying Special Jounin had done but he had one hell of a splitting headache. Opening his eyes again he saw that there were two of the toothpick guy now, one each for both of his friends. Apparently the shadow clone jutsu wasn't quite as forbidden as he was led to believe. Shino seemed to be doing alright holding the guy off between his Kikai and ninjitsu. Ino on the other hand was definitely having a hard time. She probably shouldn't have used that Katon earlier. While using it in practice the past few months had really increased her chakra levels or capacity as Shino often said, it seemed to always take most of her chakra no matter how much she had. Naruto was also sure that she had never fully recovered from that Shintensen jutsu, whatever that was.

"Ino!" Naruto suddenly screamed as his friend stumbled, falling back and Genma surged forward with a kunai.

Whatever it was that Genma had done to prevent him from using the kawarimi was still working so Naruto's hands blurred as they flew through a different sequence of seals as he concentrated intently. He had never managed to pull off this jutsu with much reliability especially as far as accuracy went but a fierce look of determination came upon his face. He just had to now.

He had to.

There was a burst of leaves and suddenly Naruto was standing in front of Ino, throwing up his arms as he blocked Genma's attack. He felt an odd stinging sensation as the kunai was buried into his forearm but that didn't matter. Nobody tried to hurt his friends. Nobody. Naruto's eyes began to show flecks of red for a moment and despite having a kunai buried in his arm his hands flew together.

"Damn!" Genma cursed as his eyes and more importantly his attention flashed over to the Hokage, this screw up was not going to go over well.

"Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Naruto roared in fury and he barely noticed that not only did Shino appear slightly behind him adding a second line of defense for their weakened teammate but that his friends hands were flashing through seals.

Everyone in the stands froze for a moment as a sea of orange exploded throughout the arena as hundreds and hundreds of shadow clones suddenly popped into existence. All of them glaring at Genma. Shino slammed his hand to the ground and called out.

"Kuchiyose no jutsu! Uzumaki Cascade!"

A massive cloud of Kikai appeared around him. In a flash every fourth Shadow Clone of Naruto vanished in a puff of smoke, devoured by an odd and rarely used combination of the Aburame Kikai summoning that he had customized himself as soon as he had learned about Naruto being able to create masses of Shadow Clones. Each clone that vanished fed the summoning and more Kikai appeared. Two out of the remaining horde of Naruto's clones surged towards Ino, picking the girl up and ran off, placing as many of their fellow clones and Kikai friends between themselves, their 'cargo' and their opponent as they could while staying in the arena. There was another surge of smoke throughout the mass of orange and a few dozen clones henged themselves into copies of Ino. Each of the newly appeared 'Ino's' had two orange covered clones move to protect them and these new groups began moving around to help hide the real Ino.

Genma's attention flashed away from the Hokage and he took in the massive sea of orange and black that loomed over and around him like some sort of bizarre tsunami. He jumped back a few feet, leaving that damn kunai still buried in Naruto's arm. His eyes widened considerably and for the first time he began to seriously doubt that he could beat these Genin without actually hurting them. Well hurting them anymore he realized belatedly as his eyes locked onto his kunai still buried in Naruto's arm.

Before anyone could actually move further though the Hokage himself suddenly appeared between Naruto and Genma.

"That Is Enough!" The old man roared, waves of killing intent poured out of him that almost seemed visible. "Cancel the jutsu Naruto."

"Uh, yeah sure right away" Naruto stated with his eyes ridiculously wide and the mass of orange vanished into clouds of smoke. Shino also dismissed his summons but did not relax his stance.

"Genma! What the hell were you doing?" Sarutobi turned and demanded from the Special Jounin.

"My apologies Lord Hokage. I was attempting nothing more than first blood on Miss Yamanaka there and honestly had never imagined that Naruto would be able to use a Shunshin at all, let alone use it accurately enough to block for his team mate." Genma stated quietly as he bowed and locked his eyes onto the ground before the Hokage.

"Hmm." Sarutobi's eyes flickered back to Naruto, Shino and Ino. "Yes I would say that these three are very exceptional Shinobi for their age. I'm almost tempted to promote the three of them to Chunin right now."

Naruto's face lit up at the Hokage's words.

"Really?" He asked the surprise ridiculously evident on his face.

"I said _almost _tempted, you can forget that happening for now. Although I must say that the three of you are most certainly more than qualified to become full fledged Genin. Very good work all three of you. This match is over. The three of you can join the others in the stands." Sarutobi smiled at the three youngsters.

-ooo-

"Ino-chan?" Inoichi said softly.

"Yes daddy?"

"Remember when I was telling you not to ever use Shintenshin on Naruto and that I would be happier if you stayed away from him?"

"Of course." Ino said as a scowl formed on her face.

"Well not using Shintenshin on him is still very important, don't ever forget that but I have no problems with you being his friend. He's a good friend to have. On the other hand how many times have I told you that using Shintenshin at your current skill level should only be used on an immobilized opponent?"

"Yeah, yeah... Damn it!" Ino frowned at her own words and her dad whispered to her.

"Oh and watch your language. Your mom will give both of us Hell if she hears any of the stuff coming out of your mouth ever again that you said on the arena floor today. Inoichi said with a smile of his own as his daughters cheeks flushed a faint pink.

-ooo-

"Son."

"Yes father?" Shino replied.

"That was an impressive example of you and your temporary team mates skills. You did our clan proud today. Your variation of the cascade summoning appeared to be unique. There is nearly certain to be a clan meeting once the others see the video. You may wish to write up your variation. It is likely to be formally added to the clan library. You did very well."

"Thank you father." Shino whispered after a moment, his eyes wide.

-ooo-

"Well Naruto you are certainly full of surprises. I don't think anyone has ever managed to impress and frustrate the Hokage as much as you have at the same time. Your parents would be very proud of you today, especially with the way you look out for your team." Iruka said as he ruffled Naruto's hair.

"Thanks Iruka-sensei!" Naruto exclaimed as one of the irritated medics wrapped his arm, they didn't appreciate having to run after their patient from the arena floor up into the stands.

"In fact I think I can treat to to ramen for lunch after all of this." Iruka chuckled at the look of joy that lit up Naruto's face.

"You Are The Best Iruka-sensei!" Naruto exclaimed as he wrapped his arms around his favorite sensei.

-ooo-

"O.k. Seriously Kakashi where the fuck did that Genin of yours get a hold of a hand seal version of Raijū Hashiri? Hell I didn't even know a hand seal version for that jutsu even existed." Genma demanded as he glared at Kakashi.

"Hm. No idea. I think the Hokage might know but he certainly didn't tell me."

"So with that and his multiple shadow clones a freaking Genin has two A rank ninjutsu?"

"Actually considering that it looks like the hand seal version is more of a chakra drain than anything else it would probably be a C rank jutsu. What's even more impressive that he can do it at all considering that his chakra is aligned with wind. I think you're also rather lucky that he apparently didn't have enough time to make any large amount of tags since yesterday."

"He makes tags now too? Damn. That kid. Hell, he's probably just too damn stubborn to let something like chakra affinity stop him. You know his Kawarimi has got to be at least C rank as well since he was pulling it off without seals and no smoke. I think I'm going to make sure I stay on his good side so when he finally becomes Hokage he'll give me some easy missions." Genma griped.

"Don't tell me that you're starting to believe his ranting." Kakashi said with a hidden smirk.

"Have you been watching him? I can't see anything stopping him unless something really big comes along and steps on him. Even that probably wouldn't work against that kid."

"Hmm." Was Kakashi's only reply as for an instant there he imagined another blond figure with a white over coat standing near Naruto. At least he thought it was his imagination.

-ooo-

*A short time earlier.

Hinata turned to face the wall so none of the other Genin could see her and whispered softly to activate her Byakugan as her hands came together. She noticed Kiba turn his head her way, apparently hearing her whisper but he moved slightly to help conceal the fact that she was using her doujutsu to basically spy on the ongoing match. She could tell by his body language that he was backing her up, already fully accepting her as a team mate, even to the point of helping her deceive their fellow Genin. She turned her attention to the arena finding herself quickly amazed and impressed by what she was seeing. Naruto, Shino and Ino made an excellent team, better than she had suspected, better than she thought possible. She watched the fight intently and gasped out loud at the way it ended. She worried about that kunai in Naruto's arm for a moment but noticed a pair of medics rushing onto the floor. She took note of the look of concern on Kiba's face but otherwise ignored him for the moment as she watched the Hokage praise Naruto and his two team mates. Although she couldn't actually hear the praise she was rather adept at lip reading using her Byakugan. She blushed ever so slightly at the huge smile and look of satisfaction on Naruto's face as she released her Byakugan and turned to Kiba.

"They did very well. Make sure you watch the video, you are going to find their battle very interesting." She said quietly to Kiba as she turned to her two temporary team mates.

Sasuke was simply standing by the door alternating between glowering and glaring at Sakura. Chougi was standing by Shikamaru and seemed somewhat distraught as he alternated looking from Sasuke to herself before he would look back to Shikamaru. She was feeling quite calm for the moment, much more so than usual so she walked up to Chougi.

"Akimichi-san, this is nothing more than an assessment match. You have nothing to worry about." Hinata stated softly with a small bow while her eyes never left the floor.

Chougi stared at her in shock that she actually spoke him and his head snapped to Shikamaru.

"She's right. Just work with her and Sasuke and you'll do fine. By this time tomorrow we'll be back together with Ino as Team 10." Shikamaru said with a slight shudder when he said Ino's name.

"Team Blue, you're up. Follow me." The Special Jounin said with a cough.

He didn't actually enter the room before he turned and headed down to the arena floor. Sasuke immediately followed the man. Hinata and Chougi glanced to each other and each nodded before following Sasuke.

-ooo-

Later that evening, far away in a little traveled corner of Fire Country, Jiraiya listened to the pair of toads report about Naruto's 2nd Genin test, his smile getting broader and broader as the story continued. It would have gotten even wider if possible when one of the toads handed him a video tape.

"O.K. Lets see what he can do with this one." Jiraiya chuckled as he handed a small red scroll to the toad that gave him the video cassette, receiving a pair of salutes before the amphibians vanished in a puff of smoke.

-ooo-

**A/N:**

The Jutsu from the scroll Jiraiya forwarded to Naruto through Aburame Shibi:

Suiton: Mizurappa - rank c – Yahiko/Jiraiya, Manga 373

Doton: Doryuu Heki – rank b – Sarutobi Hiruzen, Manga 120

Katon: Endan – rank c – Jiraiya, Manga 170

Fuuton: Reppushou – rank c – Nagato/Jiraiya, Manga 373

Raiton: Raijū Hashiri – cannon unranked - Kakashi, Manga 421

Elemental Primary affinities for this story:

Naruto – Wind

Shino - Earth

Ino - Water

Shintenshin is purposely misspelled as Shintensen when Naruto is saying/thinking it. Writing has been going relatively well lately, with luck that will continue. Hoping to post Ch. 9 sometime around Christmas/New Years. Next two fights for Team Blue and Team Red likely won't be as detailed as Team Gray's was. Not too sure, most of those two bouts are not written yet.

Also I must say 'Thank You' for the reviews. I'm not one to ask for reviews but I really do appreciate them and I wanted everyone who took the time to write one to know that. Thanks again!


	9. Chapter 9

**Ch 9.**

A/N: insert standard disclaimer of ownership here, I make no claim of ownership of any of the Naruto properties with this.

Short chapter, close to 4700 words I believe. I was going to put the 'Team Red' match in with this but this chapter was likely the hardest to write yet. Even though it took 'forever' to get back to work on this story that was more lack of time to write than fighting with the story. As there's very little of the next fight written I figured to put this out instead of taking the chance of another month or two passing. For some reason getting this fight written out was a damn nuisance, hopefully the third round will be easier. Originally all of the fights for this segment were all planned to be in the same chapter. So what was going to be Chapter 9 has now been bumped to Chapter 11. This one is very Hinata centric, so it'll likely go further into 'AU' territory, lol. As usual please excuse any spelling or grammar errors. I've corrected the spelling of Chouji's name, thanks to csad21 for catching that, no idea why I missed that. For most of the spelling of names and such here I use leafninja as a source. Hope every one enjoys this one, also hope it makes sense and fits with the rest of the story, lol.

-ooo-

Kiba strolled over to Shikamaru with a big smile.

"A bit strange compared to the typical teamwork assessment for Genin, right?"

"It seems that way." Shikamaru answered with a sigh, he wasn't going to get a nap now.

"Any idea why?"

"Something to do with that nuisance Naruto."

"Really?" Kiba said as they both looked over to Sakura.

"What?" She demanded, unsure exactly how to deal with these two.

"What happened with your team yesterday anyway and how is all of this Naruto's fault?" Kiba asked.

"I really have no idea. Naruto tried to directly attack Kakashi sensei immediately from the start of our test when Sasuke and I went into hiding. Kakashi sensei seemed to be playing with him. I thought Kakashi was going to use some odd jutsu but he just knocked Naruto into the river. I then thought that Naruto was going to give up after pulling himself out of the river but he used some sort of solid clone technique I've never seen before. I still have trouble believing that the class dunce who couldn't make three regular bunshin was able to create at least eight solid clones that disappeared into smoke when he canceled the jutsu."

"Did you really think Naruto was going to give up simply because he got knocked into a river? Did you ever watch any of his taijutsu spars in the academy? That kid never gives up that easily. He pretty much has to be driven into the ground every time. Wait, solid clones?" Kiba said as he looked to Shikamaru.

"Must be Kage Bunshin, being solid and considering the smoke. Although the amount of chakra needed to create eight of them would require an advanced Jounin level chakra well. Also makes you wonder how the hell someone like Naruto not only got his hands on a kinjutsu but actually learned how to use it." Shikamaru answered with a frown.

"He's always had a lot of chakra. The bleed off from all of the jutsu he screwed up in the academy was insane. That's surprising but hardly anything to cause some weird additional genin assessment. What else did he do?" Kiba asked as he looked back to Sakura.

"I'm not really sure. The whole time I was watching it seemed that our sensei was just playing with Naruto at the beginning but Sasuke and I talked about it after everything and he's pretty sure that all of the Naruto's that came out of the river including the first one were those weird clones and that the real Naruto was watching them fight Kakashi-sensei. The last Naruto I saw was captured and tied up by Kakashi-sensei which gave Sasuke an opening to attack our sensei. I was trying to find Sasuke when Kakashi-sensei used some sort of Genjutsu that knocked me out. When I woke up I found Sasuke but was knocked out again. When I came to, Sasuke finally helped me get up but the bell rang and our test was over. Kakashi-sensei had Naruto tied up to a different post than the first one I saw him tied to. What was really strange was the training ground was completely wrecked. It looked like a few hundred tags had been used and the ground was changed, like ripped apart, scorched and soaked in various places. Sasuke said that Naruto had done all of it fighting Kakashi-sensei but he was only able to hear some of their fight that time because he had been trapped by some sort of Doton jutsu."

"The whole point of the 'second' genin test is to see if the squad being tested has any teamwork. If they can't work together they either get shipped back to the academy or they get bounced out of the Konoha Shinobi forces completely. Granted having Sasuke on a team would generally put a massive amount of political pressure on Kakashi to pass the squad no matter what." Shikamaru said with a louder sigh.

"Pfft, from what I've heard about 'Sharingan Kakashi' he wouldn't care the least bit about that kind of crap" Kiba snorted.

Shikamaru eyed Sakura for a moment, long enough to make her start feeling uncomfortable.

"I'm surprised that they put the three of you together." Shikamaru muttered.

"Probably because so many of the adults can't stand Naruto. I heard my mom bitching that some on the council were pushing to have Sasuke apprenticed directly to Kakashi. Putting You and Sasuke with Naruto is practically a guaranteed squad failure. I'm sure after that there would have been considerable pressure for Kakashi to take on Sasuke while you and Naruto would be tossed aside. You would probably have the option to go back to the academy. Iruka-sensei would have certainly known that." Kiba stated as he looked at Sakura.

"It makes sense to apprentice Sasuke to Kakashi but I would have thought that the Hokage and Iruka-sensei would have worked around any attempt to sabotage Naruto. Especially after whatever it was that the orange headache pulled the other night to finally qualify as a Genin. So basically Kakashi was likely under some pressure, whether he cared or not, to pass Sasuke. Then Naruto apparently did massive damage to the training area during the assessment on his own to impress the man enough to cause him to talk to the Hokage. Who then decided to see what Naruto could do with team mates that actually supported him." Shikamaru stated with his typical irritated frown.

"Well that certainly explains putting him with Shino and Ino. The three of them have been working together at least two or three days every week for months. Man I hope they let the rest of us see the video tapes from their fight. I've been poking around the training areas they typically use for a couple of months now and they've certainly been working their asses off. I've never been able to see anything that they do other than some taijutsu practice. The chakra residue they put off though means they've been doing plenty of ninjutsu stuff." Kiba stated.

Sakura and Shikamaru looked at him thoughtfully.

-ooo-

Hinata stood calmly between Sasuke and Chouji. She was tempted to roll her eyes at the silliness of not only this additional test but at her temporary team mates reactions to it. Sasuke was nearly vibrating with eager anticipation of facing a Special Jounin. Chouji on the other hand was a nervous wreck. She never thought she would ever be the calmest and least concerned member of any squad. It had helped her immensely to have spied on the previous match. Nothing they did here really mattered she was certain now. The Hokage had seen all that he had wanted to see during the previous match judging by his body language. She felt that the next two matches were a waste of time.

She was pretty sure that the remainder of this whole fiasco was going to be nothing more than a showcase for the train wreck that Team 7 was likely to be. If it weren't for the political aspects pushing the Uchiha forward she doubted even the legendary Hatake Kakashi would have cared. Actually from what she had read of the man even that would not be something he would be concerned about. Her eyes drifted to the silver haired Jounin up in the stands for a moment. Long enough to see that despite the mans near perfect appearance of indifference, he was paying quite a bit of attention to Naruto. That was unusual. Unusual for almost every adult she had ever seen that bothered to even notice Naruto.

She would have to see if she could find out more there later. Now she had a match to participate in.

-ooo-

A minute or so later, each of the three Genin had attempted several taijutsu strikes against their opponent. The three flowed in an out of range of the man, trading positions with a basic academy exercise. Nothing that would mean anything here but their opponent seemed to be willing to act as one of their old academy instructors. Hinata was sure that wouldn't last long.

She blocked several jabs and a couple of cross strikes from the Special Jounin with ease. Although she had yet to activate her Byakugan she knew Sasuke was about three meters behind her while Chouji was shifting to her left. Her attention was locked onto the Jounin's eyes, following his attention. The older man's eyes went from her own to looking slightly over her right shoulder, obviously tracking Sasuke for a moment before they drifted over to Chouji. There was just enough time for her to close the gap between herself and the Special Jounin and she was sure she could get past his guard in the moment his attention was focused on Chouji.

She actually felt a breeze across her hand as a pair of shuriken nearly grazed her on her right. The following stinging sensation from her left on the other hand distracted her for a split second as two more shuriken passed her on her left. One of which actually grazed over the back of her hand, leaving a thin red line. That split second distraction though was far more than enough time for Gekkou Hayate to skip a step forward, bypass her guard and land a pulled back but still solid punch to her face. Hinata flew back, tumbling to the ground as Sasuke lunged past her. He was taking advantage of her faltering, angling to strike the Jounin by sacrificing her.

"Stay out of my way." Sasuke growled to Hinata as passed, throwing a few more shuriken at the smiling Jounin.

-ooo-

"You Suck Sasuke!" Naruto screamed out from the stands.

"Naruto!" Ino hissed as she smacked him in the back of the head.

Shino turned his head a bit smirking ever so slightly at his Team Gray teammates. Ino stole a quick, worried glance to the Hokage and breathed out a soft barely audible sigh that her temporary team mates outburst hadn't seemed to bother the village leader.

"Thanks Ino." Iruka said as he chuckled and Naruto looked indignant but still the blond smiled.

-ooo-

Hinata picked herself off of the ground and wiped away the small amount of blood that had leaked out of her mouth. She glared first at Hayate and then at Sasuke. If the damn Uchiha had even the slightest degree of concern for his team mates and gave either of them any assistance at all she would have certainly scored a glancing hit on their Jounin opponent just now. So the Uchiha thought he could sacrifice his temporary team mates in order to increase his own advantage did he? Well two could play at that game.

As she brushed some dirt from a sleeve ground Hinata flashed a few quick hand signals to Chouji that neither Hayate or Sasuke could see. Chouji's eyes widened slightly but Sasuke's actions were obvious even to him and he did not care for how Sasuke had used Hinata just now. He also knew that Sasuke would have done the same to him. He nodded to Hinata.

Chouji moved over to the other side of Sasuke from Hinata and moved slightly forward. Hayate eyed the three Genin carefully. Hinata was actually still the closest to him of the three and in many ways she was the biggest threat he thought. He tossed a kunai at her, firmly believing that she could easily avoid it. As soon as Chouji saw the kunai fly towards Hinata he rushed the Special Jounin, drifting slightly towards Sasuke while doing so.

Hinata easily saw Sasuke's attention flicker between Chouji and Hayate as the kunai flew towards her. She was not yet able to perform the Hyuga Kaiten but she had been doing the basic exercises for it for two years now. A blur of a hand seal activated her Byakugan before the kunai was any further than a single meter from the Special Jounin. She did have something of a knack to an interesting aspect of what she did know of the Kaiten though. Chakra flooded her hand and she spun around a single time. While nowhere near the speed of Kaiten it was a good deal faster than any other Ninja around her age that she knew, with the exception of her cousin could do. He open hand easily intercepted the kunai, causing it to basically bounce off of her chakra engulfed hand and fly off towards Sasuke with roughly eighty percent of it's original velocity.

There was a soft 'thunk' and Sasuke hissed in pain as nearly five centimeters of the kunai was buried into his leg. Hayate's attention locked onto his kunai now sticking out of the Uchiha's leg. That brief second was enough of an opening for Hinata to lunge forward, chakra flowing into her finger tip. Her hand seemed to brush Hayate's forearm softly yet he surged backwards away from her as if he had been burned badly, a look of shock on his face as his attention immediately shifted back to her.

She could see the minute chakra burn on the Special Jounin's arm with her Byakugan and was reasonably certain her opponent clearly felt the small chakra spike she had hit him with.

'Two freaking millimeters!' She practically screamed to herself in her mind even though there was no hint on her expression to indicate her frustration.

It was a near miss but with shutting down someone's tenketsu two millimeters might as well be two miles. It was extremely frustrating that near miss was the only actual hit she had even scored on Hayate. That was still one more hit than either of her team mates had done but it wasn't good enough. Even worse the Special Jounin was obviously now well aware not only of exactly what her ability with her family's Gentle Fist style was but there was also a good chance that he knew that she was willing to use at least Sasuke rather viciously. It likely would be nearly impossible for her to hit him a second time. It was also incredibly unlikely he would be surprised by any actions she might do intending to distract him.

She saw the fireball coming up from behind her before she heard the whoosh of flames thanks to her Byakugan. It wouldn't hit her but it was going to be damn close. The arrogant bastard had the gall to tell her to stay out of his way but he was the one moving around to constantly put her between him and the Special Jounin. Except for the times he would move forward to strike their opponent himself. She just might have to 'accidentally' deflect another one of the Special Jounin's kunai over to Sasuke she thought as she dodged to the side anyway, still feeling the heat of the passing flames. In some ways his constant positioning behind her would actually make it easier to send another one flying his way. She did smirk though as she took note of the wire Sasuke had hidden in the flames, tied to one of several shuriken that were also shrouded in the fire. Maybe, just maybe she could finally work with something the pain in the ass Uchiha was doing. She flashed another few hand signs to Chouji, who smiled himself as he ran to towards the Special Jounin's left side.

Suddenly the mans Sword was in his hand, even her eyes had trouble seeing the man draw it. He held it oddly, twisting his wrist with significant force as it passed through the air. There was ringing sound as the sword impacted the shuriken tied to the wire, sending it arcing through the air. It was going to pass close to her but nowhere near close enough to worry. A return, extremely short pass of his blade knocked the other shuriken away as if they were mildly annoying insects. One final blurring pass back and the sword caught the wire trailing the first shuriken along the back side of the blade. Another odd twist as the tip of the blade darted forward, wrapped the wire around the weapon. Hinata gasped softly as she saw the mans chakra flare along the wire. Suddenly the shuriken turned in midair immediately after it was almost exactly one meter behind Her. She started to twist and drop in an attempt to dodge but the damn throwing star accelerated, wrapping around her and pinning her arms to her sides. Hayate twisted his wrist once again, pulling the wire tight with the edge of the sword for a moment before it was cut through. As he shook the excess wire off of his sword Hinata immediately realized that the mans chakra was still charging the wire to keep her captive. Chouji stumbled in shock at seeing Hinata tangled up while Sasuke completely ignored her. The young Akimichi tossed a kunai at the Special Jounin before changing directions in an attempt to help Hinata.

Unfortunately their opponent took advantage of Chouji's near complete focus on trying to help Hinata and the man surged forward with a kick that knocked Chouji a few dozen meters away while simultaneously dodging a half dozen kunai along the way that Sasuke threw at him. Hinata nearly growled in frustration but quickly calmed herself. The wire had only wrapped around her a bit less than one and a half times but it was somehow secured behind her by Hayate's chakra. With a concentrated burst of chakra out of a few of her tenketsu along her upper left arm she managed to disrupt the chakra laced line enough that it fell away from her, freeing her arms.

She glanced over to Chouji, surprised to see him already up with his hands together in a single seal before he suddenly expanded into a round form. She hadn't heard him but did see his mouth moving, calling out the technique. Although she knew of the Akimichi family technique she found herself slightly surprised that Chouji knew it well enough to attempt to use it now. Seeing him become a rather large sphere was something he had given no indication of being able to do while they were in the academy.

The large round form of Chouji spun along the ground heading towards their opponent far too slowly to be any threat to the man. There was so much dust and debris being thrown up though that Hinata hoped she would be obscured enough to get close to their opponent. She pulled a Kawarimi with a rock exposed by Chouji's advance to fall behind the young Akimichi. As Hayate hit Chouji with a simple but powerful push kick, drastically changing the boys direction, Hinata flipped over the round boy, hoping that she would be able to attempt another Juuken strike. Although her sudden appearance out of the dust cloud did slightly surprise the man there was no way she was going to be able to get close enough. Still she was pleased to see him back pedal a bit to increase the distance between them.

She did have one Ninjutsu that she hadn't learned from either her family or through the academy program. Her cheeks colored slightly as she remembered reading and memorizing one of the jutsu on one of Naruto's scrolls from across the classroom months ago. Although such acts were hardly frowned on in school or even in her family she did feel that it was basically stealing from someone she wanted desperately as a friend and more.

Her hands blurred even to the Special Jounin's eyes.

"Suiton. Mizurappa." She called out softly as her hand rose to her lips.

Her chakra flows were precise and she practically felt the water singing to her as the stream appeared before her to quickly lash out at her opponent. Despite using less chakra than Ino with this same jutsu, Hinata's stream was larger and faster. That did not make a difference though as Hayate flickered away, escaping the blast of water with barely a sprinkle of drops appearing on his sleeve.

Hinata felt a small degree of satisfaction as she noticed a small frown appear on Ino's face with her success of doing the Suiton jutsu. It was obvious from watching Team Gray's fight that Ino's chakra was aligned with water. Now the young blond girl knew that Hinata edged her out slightly with this particular skill.

Chouji faltered, tumbled out of his Human Boulder form and rolled across the arena floor a few times. Before he could react though Hayate appeared before him and in an instant had Chouji wrapped up in Ninja wire. Sasuke bounded over Chouji, attempting to take on the Special Jounin with nothing more than taijutsu. Hinata could see though that the Uchiha had slowed slightly. There was no way that he would be able to land a single hit on their opponent.

Still it might distract the man long enough for Hinata to free Chouji. She quickly generated four Bunshin and ran towards her bound team mate. Before she could even half the distance though a handful of shuriken flew her way. She easily parried the pair that would have hit her but the rest easily disrupted her bunshins. Completely exposed now she still attempted to get to Chouji. Unfortunately Hayate had latched onto Sasuke and with a chakra enhanced taijutsu throw, flung the Uchiha a good five or six meters through the air. Hinata was barely able to duck under the flying Sasuke who was twisting in the air as he flew overhead.

Sasuke managed to spin enough that he gained enough control that when he landed on Chouji he sprung back towards their opponent with a chakra enhanced leap. Hinata was stunned to see him fly directly towards her. She suddenly found herself face down in the dirt as the damn Uchiha used her shoulder as a spring board to accelerate a bit more towards the Special Jounin.

Hinata noticed Hayate glance to the Hokage who then nodded slightly. Before she could finish picking herself up off the ground she saw Hayate back hand Sasuke, knocking him into the dirt. There was a blur of movement from Hayate and Hinata was surprised to see Sasuke bound up in wire just as tightly as Chouji. She abandoned the idea of simply standing up onto her feet and immediately rolled over her head while surging her chakra to her legs. She practically flew to her feet as she spun around to face the man by herself.

He blurred and she grimaced as he appeared before her after a seal less Shunshin. His fists flowed forward, nearly invisible but she was actually fast enough to block the series of strikes he attempted. The man frowned for a moment, causing Hinata to smile slightly. The smile didn't last though as he simply brought his greater size and power to bear. She still managed to have her arm beat out his strike with a block but he powered through her block anyway. Her entire arm went numb from the force of his hit. Luckily though he pulled the punch a bit before striking her across the jaw. As she reeled back she saw a follow up strike that she simply could not react to as he buried his hand into her solar plexus with a ridge hand strike. Nearly all of the air in her lungs was forcibly ejected and she found herself lying on the ground gasping like a fish out of water as she tried to force her stunned diaphragm to work again.

As her breath came back in a few dozen seconds she heard the Hokage call the match in favor of the Special Jounin. The irritating man walked over to Chouji, quickly had him free from the wires and helped him to his feet. A moment later he did the same for Sasuke after looking to Hinata and seeing that she was getting up on her own.

The damn match was over and for once in her life Hinata felt more rage than anything else. Granted the only person who might even notice was her father in the stands. For once she did not care what even he thought. There was the slightest tremble to her hand for an instant as she brushed some dirt from her jacket. She closed her eyes for a moment before walking over to her two temporary teammates and the Special Jounin that had defeated them. She bowed to Hayate, turned and gave a slight bow to Chougi as well before turning to the Uchiha. Sasuke looked at her with that irritated indifference he met everyone with. With no change at all in her expression her hand suddenly blurred and she smacked Sasuke across his face, sending the 'boy' tumbling into the dirt.

'You are a pathetic team partner and if the Hokage had any sense at all he would strip you of your provisional rank and send you back to the academy.' She stated calmly and began walking towards the door.

Everyone present was completely shocked into silence. Although if anyone had looked they would have seen a small smile on Hiashi's face as he watched his daughter leave the arena.

As soon as she left the arena floor though, entering an area where nobody could see her, she began to tremble uncontrollably. Her breathing became even more ragged as she fully realized what she had said and done in front of nearly every single person who had any sort of influence on her life. The Hokage, Kurenai sensei, her Father... NARUTO! Her trembling increased massively as the fact that Naruto himself had seen and heard everything. There was no way he would notice her now after that dismal display of her fighting abilities. The most impressive things she had done would have been impossible for him to even see. After his match working with Ino and Shino how could she possibly compare to the Yamanaka girl in Naruto's eyes. Even despite being slightly better than Ino at the Suiton jutsu, the difference wouldn't likely be noticeable by Naruto since he was obviously Wind natured. Even if he had noticed it was surely not enough to help her stand out as even the Yamanaka's equal when she thought of how well Ino and Shino worked with Naruto. Her outburst and subsequent smacking of the Uchiha was likely something Naruto would notice but not the way she wanted him to see her. As spots began to appear before her eyes but before she could actually pass out a calm steady voice called out and a firm hand lightly grabbed her shoulder in a reassuring manner.

"Hinata! Relax, you did nothing wrong. In fact I think you left a positive impression on every single person who saw you smack that arrogant little prick." Kurenai's voice, while firm came across oddly reassuring.

For a brief moment Hinata relaxed, her breathing and heart rate returning to normal extremely quickly. That ended almost as soon as it started as a second voice spoke.

"Hinata."

Her heart felt like it had stopped along with her breathing and she felt like she was going to explode as she suppressed any trembling before it could begin. She noticed a quick to vanish, disapproving glare directed to her father from her sensei but no words were said and her father ignored Kurenai.

"Yes. Father." She said, barely above a whisper.

"While I am disappointed that you missed that one Juuken strike by two millimeters it is unsurprising considering that you were facing a Special Jounin with a sub par team. You yourself did very well. I would like to see more of that from you in the future." Hiashi stated before nodding to Kurenai and vanishing.

Kurenai and Hinata both were shocked into silence.


End file.
